Angel's Tears
by makingtea
Summary: D.E.B.S. ...When one night, one decision, one bullet changed everything, the Perfect Score brings out the darkness within herself to cope. Will she be consumed by it? Rated T for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

_The following disclaimer applies to all chapters: DEBS and its characters created by Angela Robinson. DEBS movie distributed by Sony Pictures. I don't own Jack._

_Rated T for violence, language, mature subject matter, and if I was the director for DEBS 2, nudity. Lots of it._

_(I originally rated this M, but then I was told it's really not that violent, not in a blood gore kinda way at least, so I dropped it to T) _

_**Warning: This is a dark story.**_

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Angel's Tears

a D.E.B.S. fanfic

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- Crimson - 

"...It's not until moments like this when you have to remember, what's right and true." The irony of those words is not lost on the girl on the podium delivering them. Amy Bradshaw, the brightest and most impressive recruit the agency has ever known, provides words of acceptance for the most prestigious award given by the organization, in the annual celebration known as Endgame. While the individual words are definitive and merciless, collectively, they were tentative and hollow. It's as if the words are being forced out by her sheer will, her mind focused on putting the sentences out even if they were lies, even if after all she will regret uttering every last syllable.

"...Because it's moments like this when you discover what it truly means to be a DEB." A sense of relief is evident on Amy's face when she realizes the worst parts of the speech are already over. Now at last, she only has to accept the award, hold it with a smile as fake as her speech, and walk away. It would be so easy. So many people would be so happy, and she would again return to being everybody's pride and joy. So many, except herself, and except the one person she'd rather be with than be here, the one person she has just verbally damned as the worst person on Earth.

But as Amy looks over to the balcony on the upper floor, her eyes meet those of the one whose gaze seems to hypnotize her every time. Lucy Diamond, the now-retired notorious criminal mastermind and thief, but also the most kind and understanding companion she's ever met. Amy remembers the few days they spent together, when joy was when Lucy looked deep into her soul, when everything became nothing when they kissed.

Lucy smiles at her from the balcony. It was that soothing, knee-weakening smile that made the world stand still. Somehow, just looking at her gave her the necessary strength to do what she should have done long ago. It is now when it all became so clear to Amy. No more lies, and no more restraint. Come hell or high water, she will be with Lucy. The award be damned, and her friends will either have to accept it or not. This girl loved her, and made her happy. And it's about time she returned the gesture.

Amy sighs. "Which is why I can't accept this award from you tonight..." Her tone is no longer somber, but confident, and almost giddy.

What Amy can't see from her vantage point on the stage was that right behind Lucy, was Amy's ex-boyfriend, Bobby. Now with a gun in his hands aimed directly at Lucy's back. He had been beaming with personal victory as he heard Amy's words of persecution against the one who has become his romantic rival. But now, he sees this sudden reversal in Amy's words. This begins to anger him. Could it be that in the end, the love of his life will choose this woman he has his gun pointed at, rather than him?

Amy continues. "Because the truth is, the time I spent with Lucy Diamond, were the happiest days of my life. And the only brave thing I've done this whole time, is what I'm doing now..." The words sting at Bobby's mind and ego to an infuriating level. Amy has made her choice perfectly clear. This dark-haired girl has taken his girlfriend away from him despite all he's done for her. In Bobby's mind now, his gun is no longer aimed at any criminal; it is now aimed at the most hateful person alive.

Even with all the disapproving looks she's getting from her audience, Amy couldn't be happier. It was the truth, and just as the saying goes, this truth is setting her free. The dull ache in her chest was suddenly lifted, and with her heart pulsing with excitement, she speaks her final goodbye.

"Now if you'll all excuse me, I have a date with the devil." The mumblings of the audience ignored, she feels as light as air, and takes another glance at Lucy. At this moment she knows, to make her departure from the stage now would be a prudent thing to do.

As the crowd continues to murmur with confusion, a loud shot and echo rings out the large room. Suddenly the noises from the crowd turn to a synchronized gasp then silence. Amy freezes still in her position, stunned at the deafening blast, her eyes remains pointed right at Lucy.

Lucy also seems to be petrified in her spot at the noise. But as the initial bang rings off of her ears, she feels a dull ache in her ribs. As she glances downward, she sees a splatter of blood sprayed over the balcony ledge. She tries to look down at the exact source of the blood but her legs give out. As she falls forward and her mind begins to fog, she grabs onto the ledge, and looks over to the stage for a last look at the girl she loves more than anything she's ever known.

Amy, still confused and dismayed at the current situation, sees Lucy fall, and thus, she then sees Bobby behind her, gun in hand, pointed forward, a small trickle of smoke rising from the barrel. Bobby's face is filled with intense rage and his eyes were boiling with unleashed hatred.

The situation did not completely sink in to Amy's consciousness until she watched Lucy's face grow pale. The ex-thief loses her grip on the ledge, and falls to the floor, completely out of view in the balcony. Then a few drops of blood begin to trickle down the front face of the dark-painted wood. The spilt beads of life meander downward, each marking its own trail of crimson like Angel's tears.

The loudest speakers of the acoustically tuned room could not match the sheer fury of the horrified scream that emanated through the building right then. Amy grasps the edge of the podium in utter despair as her body loses balance. Her eyes clenched in disbelief at the image of her love being struck down. Soon, she sinks to the floor, tears streaming down on her face. As she falls, she hears steps nearby coming towards her to console her. But she slowly becomes overwhelmed at the intensity of her distress and anguish; her focus begins to slip away. The steps she heard seem to fade even as they approach. In her final conscious gasp for breath she utters the name she holds dear. "...Lucy."

-to be continued-


	2. Chapter 2

- Loss -

When she regained consciousness, three days after Endgame, Amy found herself lying in a hospital bed. The first word to enter her mind was "Lucy", but she choked, since a long feeding tube inserted down her throat was preventing the name from being vocalized.

She remembered everything, although she had so hoped with disregarded futility that it was simply a passing nightmare. Her friends came and greeted her with joy and relief that she finally woke, but there was only one question Amy wanted to ask.

With sincere difficulty, her fellow DEBS squad members revealed to her that Lucy Diamond was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital from internal bleeding. Nothing else they said after that even registered with Amy, as all she could do was sob in excruciating grief on the hospital bed. After many hours, the group eventually gave up trying to console her, and decided to let her cry herself out.

Amy eventually did stop crying. After how long no one really knows. But after the tears ran dry all she would do is to stare at the wall.

It was another two days before Amy finally rose from her bed. She was weak because she had refused to eat, but she managed to put on the clothes Janet had brought for her, and checked herself out of the hospital without informing anyone else.

The events of the next few months seemed to have gone by in a blur. A few days after she left the hospital, she submitted her formal resignation from the DEBS organization, ignoring her squad's incessant protests. After that, she seems to have completely disappeared. Even with the DEBS resources, they could not specifically locate the Amy Bradshaw that was once the DEBS poster-child. The once-revered "Perfect Score" now dropped off the face of the Earth, but this was only temporary.

What the DEBS didn't know at the time was that Amy re-acquainted herself with Scud, the late Lucy Diamond's right hand man. Scud himself went into a pit of depression after he heard word of Lucy's death. Lucy's once powerful criminal syndicate went into a state of complete disarray without Lucy's leadership and Scud's supervision.

However, once Amy took over the reins, it's unlikely that even Scud could have fathomed the untapped potential that was within the "Perfect Score." When Mr. Phipps, the DEBS mission coordinator, indicated to Amy that by being the Perfect Score, she is the ultimate liar, Amy finally truly understood the weight of those words when she decided to take up where Lucy left off.

With Scud's help, Amy reassembled the team of men and women who made up the workforce of the organization, as well as reconnecting with most of Lucy's old contacts. And to ensure there were no question as to her intent and abilities to the rest of the criminal underground, she organized a heist that resulted in the Chancellor of Bulgaria being 15 million euros poorer and Amy-Lucy's organization (as it was now nicknamed internally) suddenly finding themselves richer by the same amount.

It didn't take long before the DEBS took notice of the new force in criminal activity. They discovered that this group exclusively victimizes persons with certain political influence and power within their respective countries. It took considerable more work and many weeks before the DEBS finally discovered the name of the group responsible, and the new face at the helm.

It is not surprising that the DEBS reacted with considerable shock and disbelief when they discovered the new character behind these frauds is none other than Amy Bradshaw. Their former star prodigy is now believed to be responsible for the theft of a combined amount of 75 million dollars US all over the world, so far from what is known, in only 3 months.

As if Ms. Petrie, the head of DEBS, needed more embarrassment amongst the intelligence community, the pressure to bring those responsible to justice increased tremendously when confidential word came that the White House Chief of Staff Bill Page had just been defrauded of 8 million dollars from his personal accounts. Preliminary investigations into the theft indicated tactics mirrored those of the other reported international thefts from political players. Now, Ms. Petrie has the White House Administration breathing down her back to have Amy Bradshaw caught.

However, this was much easier ordered than done, as it was they themselves who gave Amy Bradshaw the education that taught her all the ins and outs of the trade, and would ultimately allow her to avoid any possible capture by the authorities. Their school tried to teach the skills to make a great spy, ironically, they never considered it could also make a great criminal, and Amy Bradshaw was an extremely good student.

As Ms. Petrie reviews the Agency file on Amy Bradshaw, the continuous string of "A's" reflect back at her bifocals, as though each of them was laughing at her in ridicule and mockery.

* * *

- Darkness in the Evil Lair -

The stillness of night permeates the walls of the entire room. Faint light and shadows dominate like guardian sculptures strategically placed through the floor and walls. The sporadic sounds of crickets outside the windows are the only blemish to what is otherwise an endless sea of silence. Amy sits lazily on her executive style chair, her long blond hair draped freely over the leather surface. She looks with feigned interest at the 3-dimensional display hovering over her desk. Scans of official documents, financial statements, and wire transfer records flash through the array of colors. Since she has already seen enough for the night, she clicks a button on the keyboard and the entire laser show quickly faints to thin air.

It was then that she looks through the window at the far wall and notices the partially lit moon in the sky, currently the only source of illumination left in the room. The moon always seems to have special meaning for her. Its white surface is like a small mirror, shining only a fraction of the radiance projected by the invisible sun.

Amy gets up from the chair, and as she has done countless times in the past few months, walks over to the sofa near the window, and sits down on the floor. Her gaze never leaves the view of the moon. It's as though she is afraid that if she turned away, it will be gone when she turns back. She continues to stare at it until she can almost believe that the light projected on the cratered surface has morphed into a pink heart. The words, "Amy be mine" seems to be ever so slowly coming into view.

Amy could, and have many times previously, kept staring at it until her mind sinks into a version of sleep that might possibly get her rest. So many times she'd find herself awake on that sofa that she seems to have barely used the King sized bed on the other corner of the room. Tonight however, her trance is broken by the restrained knocking sound coming from the door.

"Amy? Are you still awake?"

Slightly startled at the interruption, she blinks herself back to the here and now. Gathering her composure, she allows herself a long sigh, and reaches for the remote on the coffee table in front of her, and presses a button to allow Scud to enter.

Several metallic clangs ring off in solid succession as the steel-reinforced door releases its locks and allows a tentative-looking Scud to step into the room.

Scud quickly notices the darkness. Embarrassingly, he stumbles out an apology. "Oh I'm sorry, Amy. I didn't think you'd be asleep yet."

"I'm not." Amy replies plainly.

It was confusing at first, since he expected Amy to be in bed due to the darkness of the room. But he was even more surprised to see the voice came from a figure sitting on the floor, back against the front of the sofa, face looking out the window.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything. Got a few moments?" Scud asks casually.

"I guess so." Her voice was so low he could barely hear it.

Scud tries to lighten the tone. "Firstly Amy, congratulations on the awesome take yesterday."

Amy's face showed no indication of gratification or delight. There was a delay before she finally answered faintly, "...Thanks."

"And I mean, totally! I wish I can see the look on the face of that Consulate jackass when he discovers he's got nothing left in his bank book!" Scud trails off in a giggle hoping Amy will follow suit.

But Amy continued to sit there, staring out the window, blank and emotionless.

The artificial smile plastered on Scud's face begins to give way. Realizing that the mood is going to stay melancholy no matter what he does, he sighs, and walks over to where Amy was sitting and sits down beside her.

Scud lets the silence linger a bit before he finally speaks. His tone now turned serious and subdued. "No matter how much we steal, we are not going to get her back, Amy."

"I know that."

"Then why do you do this if this makes you so damn miserable?"

"Because I'm good at it."

"That's not a reason."

"Sure it is."

"Why?"

"Because the test said so."

Scud knew Amy doesn't truly believe in what the test ever said about her, but tries a different approach. "Lucy gave all of this up for you. Do you really think she would want you to continue where she left off?"

"Lucy would have wanted to not be dead."

"That's besides the point."

"What is the point, then?"

"...My point is ...you've changed, Amy. You were this fragile, naïve thing when I first met you. You wouldn't harm a fly. Now you do these jobs and take just about everything the guy has except the shirt on their backs. Lucy had taken a lot in her time but she was never this... relentless."

"You've seen their financial records. They deserved it."

"Yes, they did, but..." Scud could only let the word trail off. In all the years he's done this with Lucy, there was always the unmistakable element of fun in every lawfully-challenged operation they did. That fun was no longer there with Amy. Everything was so structured, so procedural, so well controlled. This has truly become work. The fact they were so thorough in each of the thefts that it left most of their victims broke and weeping didn't add too much to the enjoyment either.

"I've changed?" Amy asks in a slightly sarcastic manner. Scud could only sit quietly.

Amy continues, "...Everything changed that day, Scud."

There was no argument against that, certainly. Scud's own life turned upside down after Lucy's death. He blamed himself for the horrible plan that got Lucy in harm's way. For months, his continued his self-loathing. He also eventually lost contact with Janet, the sweater-obsessed DEBS agent who used to communicate with him on a nightly basis. It wasn't until a timely call from Amy Bradshaw that pulled him out of the doldrums that allowed him to concentrate on something other than what he could have done different that day.

"...But some things don't change. They told me I am the ultimate liar, and that was true. I lied to myself and everybody else for as long as I know. Lucy was the only one who ever saw me through the lies. If only I had stopped lying before that day, she'd be with me. If I didn't try so fucking hard to please everyone, we'd be in Barcelona now, sipping coolers, watching the sunset with her arms around me. But I was a coward, and I had to watch her die."

"She loved you, more than anyone or anything. She would only want you to be happy. ...And I hate to see you like this too."

Amy straightens her back, and restored a bit of the fixed determination back on her face. "If you want to make me happy, you know what to need to do."

Scud twists uncomfortably in his position. Even though he knew he had something Amy wanted to hear, he had major apprehensions. He had hoped if he doesn't say anything she wouldn't talk about it again. But he knew, that was an unreasonable hope.

Scud drops his face so that he seems to be looking at his feet. "We found him."

Amy's face immediately perked over at him. Her eyes were clear and sharp, and her mouth was seething with contempt. "Good. Pick him up."

Scud sighs. "But are you really sure about this? Amy, this could get you into some real trouble."

"It doesn't matter. Get him."

Amy's tone was so assertive that Scud knew he couldn't change her mind with any rational argument. He knew there was always a line in this job he wouldn't cross. But now, he will cross it. A part of him wanted this to happen, but there's always that irritating little nag in the back of his brain telling him not to. A conscience can be quite bothersome sometimes.

"...Alright." Scud sighs warily as he gets up, and begins to walk out of the room. He stops himself right before he leaves, hesitating.

"If it was Lucy grieving for you instead of the other way around, would you want her to do this?"

There was no response coming from the room. Scud didn't really expect one, and he left. The door closed with an abrupt clunk and the usual metallic thumps of the securing bolts.

Amy returns her fixation back to the sky. She tries to maintain her determined face but suddenly, her emotions spill over. Her face falls and she clasps her hand to her mouth as her eyes clench with tears. Her body quivers as she chokes on her own sorrow. She gasps for breath as she pries her eyes open. Her tears collect into a scattered pool on the floor, and with it, her partial moonlit reflection stares back at her. Her sadness deepens as she realizes she might have lost herself. She wonders, if Lucy was alive and she seeing what she is now, or after what she's about to do, whether Lucy would continue to love her...

-to be continued-


	3. Chapter 3

Freefall

- Homeland Security Agency Central Office, 2030 hours -

Bobby Matthews is in the midst of an extended walk. It's the same long distance he walks twice a day, 5 days a week, for the past 2 months. As if being in the office all day doing paperwork wasn't tragic enough, his bosses giving him the worst shift available requires him to be the last person to get to work, and the last person to leave. This naturally leaves him the last pick of the available parking spots, usually at the farthest corner of the entire lot. This area of the parking lot is so far away from the main building that he doesn't even think the security cameras reach it.

Bobby no longer works as a field agent. The official records show that he was demoted as a consequence of firing a weapon on an unarmed suspect without provocation. Not exactly a record to be proud of, but if given the choice between that and the real reason why he's here, he'll take the lie. Now he fights against dangers to the country in a shirt and tie in a cramped office at headquarters. While certainly without the glamour and excitement of catching bad guys with his bare hands, he finds this new post calming, and appreciates the fact he can go through a workday without the sound of gunfire ringing in his ears.

As he approaches the familiar barely lit region of the parking lot, he notices something strange today. His car is usually by its lonesome self by this time. Today, there's a gray van parked right beside him, on the driver's side. He wonders what unfortunate bloke is still working at this time, and a part of him feels a bit better that he might not have _the_ worst hours in the department after all. A small smile creeps on his face, as he continues to stroll over to the driver side door of his Toyota Matrix, the keys dangling in his hand.

As he is about to open the door, the sliding door of the van suddenly jolts open, and several large black-clothed men with masks and gloves grab him. One covers his mouth with a towel soaked with an inhaled sedative, knocking him out cold after only a few seconds of struggle. They drag him inside the gray vehicle and shut the door, while another man steps out of the passenger side of the van. This man is dressed like Bobby is, with a pressed shirt and tie, and dark pants. He walks casually to the Toyota, and picks up the keys from the ground. He briefly checks the surroundings to check of any unusual activity, then opens the lock, steps in, and proceeds to drive the car out of the parking lot. The gray van later followed suit.

* * *

- Vengeance -

There was only haze when his disoriented mind finally returned to consciousness. Bobby gasped in pain at the dull headache he had. Opening his eyelids slowly, his vision is stung by the shine of a large lamp over his head. He tries to twist away from the bright light, but quickly realizes he could not. He tilts his head downward then opens his dizzy gaze again. He discovers that he was completely locked down on some sort of vertical metal stretcher. His arms, legs and torso clamped tightly with what looked like thick metal clasps. Around him, old and barren concrete walls dominate every side of this room. A small wall-mounted table on his right side was the only decoration he could immediately see.

He turns his head to scan whatever space his bound position would allow him to see. As he gazes over to his left, he's stunned to see a blonde woman sitting on a simple wooden chair close to the wall. Her arms were crossed, and one side of her hair was draped over her face. The first instinct was that this was another prisoner, but he soon realizes this girl had no bindings on her. Upon closer inspection, he also notices a handgun placed neatly on the top of a small table next to her, with what resembled a small controller device next to it.

Bobby's mind was still trying to assess the situation when a voice came from somewhere under the blonde locks, a voice so familiar yet so distant. "Hello Bobby." This voice, once so sweet and kind, now sends an unnerving chill rising quickly up his spine.

Despite recognizing the voice, he didn't really believe it was her until she tilted her head up and allowed the hair to clear her face. Amy Bradshaw. He once called this woman his girlfriend. He remembers being in love with her. He remembers firing a bullet into the back of the woman she fell in love with.

"...Amy?" The name was the only thing his entire bewildered mind could form at this time. Despite strong evidence to the contrary, he was still harboring a hope that she is here to help him in whatever manner. This remnant of hope was dashed when he sees her slowing rising from the chair, slowly and methodically picking up both items on the table. The apprehension in his mind rises when she takes a few short steps toward him.

Amy places an item in each of her hands. Without saying a word, she raises her left hand holding the remote controller to Bobby's direction, and presses a button.

Bobby's body gasps and tightens as a stream of electricity is shot through his entire body. His face and teeth clenches in an unbelievable level of pain as every nerve is jolted at once. After what was only a few seconds, feeling like many minutes for Bobby, the machine is turned off. At once, his entire body sags in appreciation of the relief. His breathing is labored and his heart is pounding.

"That, Bobby, is only a brief demonstration." Amy spoke with a menacing tone in her voice.

Bobby is still gasping for air. "Amy, what's going on? Why are you doing this?"

Amy replied softly, trying not to let her emotions take over. "How could you not know?" She raises her left hand and again presses the button.

A bloody scream echoed through the room as another jolt delivers waves of agony through him. He tries to tighten his body to alleviate the pain, but it seemed to only make it worse. Every fiber of muscle in his body felt like they were each being pulled in opposite directions by rabid dogs.

At last, the torture device takes another pause. Bobby collapses in relief, his body losing all of its strength.

"Why did you kill her, Bobby? ...Why? ...Did you think that would make me love you? ...Or did you just want a way to get back at me for leaving you?" Amy's voice begins to tremble with restrained anguish.

Bobby had no words he could say, and stayed at his current position, still struggling to find his breath.

"TELL ME!" Amy screamed at him for an answer. Her left hand twitches on the controller and reactivates the machine.

Bobby's head is jolted back against the stretcher. A loud clunk can be heard as his skull smashes against the metal. His teeth were clenched and a flat grumble was the only sound he makes. Blood begins to drip down his lips and down his chin as his teeth bites reflexively into the inside of his mouth. Eventually again, the machine stops for another reprieve.

"Because I hated her!" Bobby finally spits out. Droplets of blood spray forward as he speaks breathlessly through his bloodied teeth, "That's right! I hated her! I hated that she was more for you than I was! I fucking hated that you were going to choose her over me!" Bobby gags at the last word as he swallows a mouthful of blood. His jaw was trembling with adrenaline. His eyes were two reddened meshes of dilated capillaries.

Amy steps back briefly. She tried not to show it, but she was astonished by this kind of brash response from Bobby. Amy wanted to break him, make him cry in cowardice and make him shed every tear she has had to shed because of his actions. Amy wanted the satisfaction of seeing him lose himself, before ending his life with a point blank bullet shot into his head.

"Then I hope it was worth it for you." Amy tries to hide the tentativeness in her own words as she spoke, and forces herself to take the plan to the next stage. She raises the controller, and using the barrel of the gun in her other hand, she presses a different button. Suddenly, a metallic clang could be heard as a curved metal bar extends from the stretcher and encircles Bobby's neck. Then it pulls down, and with it, locks Bobby's head firmly against the metal, with not even space for him to turn his neck.

Bobby could only grimace in his current position. He stares right at Amy, and sees the tears she is holding back beneath the promise of executing her revenge. His body tenses completely when Amy raises her gun into view. The barrel now only a half meter away from his head. Amy releases the safety, and this creates a small clicking sound that seemed deafening to both of them.

"Do it," muttered Bobby with clenched teeth and focused glare. "Kill me if it will make you happy."

Amy's eyes are empty, listless. For so long, she wanted him to suffer as she has. Now here he is, defenseless, vulnerable. She can end it with one bullet, snuff out the life that ruined her own. It would be so easy.

"KILL ME!" Bobby defiantly screamed at Amy with all his available strength, his lips were quivering in conviction. "This is what you want, isn't it? Splatter my brains all over the fucking room! You can do it! ...COME ON!"

No matter how hard Amy tried, she could not hold back the tears, and they begin to escape and slide down Amy's cheeks. Amy aims the gun into position, and steadies her finger over the trigger. Everything _has_ changed, Amy Bradshaw, and there's no turning back now.

The enclosed room only served to seal in the thunderous roar from bullet being discharged. The blast from the gun seemed to shake the room at its foundations, as the powerful sound echoed loudly and sharply in Amy's ears.

* * *

It was the perfect sunset. Lucy had insisted we make this 2-hour drive to this place just so that we could watch it from this specific spot. I had my doubts, but Lucy made me a believer. I couldn't imagine something so simple as a sunset being more spectacular than this magnificent vertical pool of tangerines, maroons, and coppers sinking into the glistening sea of sapphires. You feel you could almost reach out and dip your hand into it and pull out pure gold. Lucy was sitting on the hood of her car, her hands wrapped protectively around me. Into my ear, she told me a story about how she found out about this place. It was a funny story, I remember laughing out loud. 

Eventually, it was over. The view retreats over the horizon and we are soon drenched in the raw crispness of night. Tiny twinkles slowly begin to find their place in the gray skies as if they were vying for position to set the background for us. I turned around towards her and held her close, our foreheads leaning against each other. There wasn't much I could do to stop myself from drowning into those deep auburn eyes.

She whispers quietly, "When I look at you, it's as if... I've been looking for you all my life." I feel her warm breath glide over my lips. It took an unbelievable amount of effort for me not to squeal in delight with her words. "I'd never felt anything like this before. What ever did you do to me, Bradshaw?"

I fake a sardonic look on my face. "How can I be any different from all your other girls, huh?"

She mouth widens to a bright smile. "There are many other girls in this world, but there's only one Amy Bradshaw, the only girl that matters. I love everything about you. ...Don't ever change."

We both let out an adolescent giggle. She leans her lips to me, and I respond by offering the same. In this cool evening air, the intense warmth we share through our kiss might be enough to make our skin shine through the descending darkness.

* * *

-to be continued- 


	4. Chapter 4

- Vengeance, continued -

It seems like an infinite amount of time has passed before the echo finally dissipates into space. Amy stood motionless, staring at the large gaping hole the weapon made at the target. Smoke still trails up from it, the last traces of the sheer velocity of the 9mm round.

Bobby couldn't turn his head to look at exactly how close the bullet eventually was to his skull. From the incredible blast, it was certainly too close for his liking. But he was still relieved that Amy pulled her aim away at the last second and the bullet embedded into the metal stretcher instead of his brain.

Amy gasps through her tears as she stares down her would-be victim. The hold on her gun begins to waver, its weight becoming unbearable in her hand. Gradually, her arm loses tension and her hand drops down, the gun dangling in a tentative hold.

She stumbles backwards as her emotions begin to overwhelm. She continues unsteadily, barely holding her own balance until her back reaches the concrete wall. She leans onto the worn surface, and lets herself slide down until she's sitting on the floor. She drops both the gun and the controller beside her. Her face begins to be enveloped in tears, her misery overflows and spills over every surface.

Bobby watches on, since that's about all he could do in his current situation. Although obviously, he is happy a gun is no longer pointed at his head, he can't help but to feel saddened by the heartbreaking display. The girl he once loved now reduced to a specimen of human torment.

Amy continues to sit by the wall. After a long time, the raw emotions soon give way to a blank sullen stare into emptiness. Her eyes seem focused without looking at anything in particular, as if lost in her own thoughts.

Eventually, Amy reaches down towards the controller, and presses a button.

Bobby reflexively tightens his body at what he thought might be another electrical jolt, but suddenly, the clamps on his body is released one after another. Weak from the recent events, his body drops heavily onto the floor once the last binding was unlocked. He gags and spits to expel the remaining blood from his mouth and throat.

After Bobby regains some strength, he pulls himself back up to a kneeling position. He looks over at Amy, who is still locked in the same position on the floor. Her face was flustered and tired, but otherwise showing no emotion.

Another minute passes, and Bobby finds that enough weakness has subsided for him to stand up. He does so, but keeps his attention over at Amy. Realizing he needs to try to break the silence, he attempts to talk to her. "Amy, ..."

Before he could continue, Amy suddenly reaches down for the gun. As soon as she reaches it, she gives it a shove, making it slide across the floor to right by Bobby's feet.

Bobby looked down at the gun. A wave of apprehension suddenly returning, and he feels his pulse quickening.

Amy spoke, in a low and almost hypnotized tone. "Finish it, Bobby."

Bobby darts his eyes back up at Amy, startled at what she's saying.

"You took her away from me. Now you have to finish the job. Take me to her." Bobby could see Amy's eyes were glossing over with fresh moisture.

Bobby could feel a tremendous uneasiness swelling up from within. He looks back down at the weapon; its sharp edges seem to be trying to ridicule the fears he's been harboring. He stoops down and, ever so gently and tentatively, picks it up into his hands. He's holding it delicately, as if it is a bomb waiting to explode if handled improperly. He notices that the safety is still off, so he carefully grips the back end of the barrel with one hand, and clicks the safety back on with the other. Then, like a surgeon performing a precise operation, he releases the magazine, and pulls it out of the gun.

Amy finally moves her face from her fixed gaze and looks at him, and the sight puzzles her. Bobby seems so fascinated by the weapon, looking at it like it was some bizarre contraption. Amy also notices that Bobby's face has grown several shades paler, as if he is somehow afraid of what is in front of him.

Never taking his eyes off of the gun and magazine in his hands, he turns and walks cautiously towards the table on the far wall. Once he reaches it, he puts the pieces of the gun down, so lightly that you only hear the faintest of clinks as the steel drops onto the aluminum table. As he releases his hands, he suddenly notices his hands trembling, and his heart was beating like it was a race.

Amy continues to be perplexed at Bobby's actions. A part of her disbelieving that this was the same Bobby Matthews she once knew, who had sometimes gone out on dates with six concealed firearms strapped to different parts of his body. Now, as he turns around and back towards her direction, she sees his face has become almost ghost-white. He walks until about halfway between the far wall and Amy and sits down across from her, resting his back onto the concrete. Blood seems to finally be flowing back to his face gradually, as a moment of silence passes.

Bobby finally speaks. "I couldn't even if I wanted to." His tone much more subdued from his marked belligerence earlier.

"What the hell happened to you Bobby?" Amy asks with much bewilderment.

Bobby hesitates. He has always tried to keep this quiet from as many people as possible. But with her seeing what she's already seen, there was no point in hiding it today. "I..." Bobby sighs, and fidgets uncomfortably. "...That was the first time I touched a gun ...since Endgame."

"...What?" A hint of annoyance is evident on Amy's face as a part of her mind questions the truth in what he's saying.

Bobby sighs again, still uneasy in revealing his greatest weakness to a former flame, especially now that she's a criminal mastermind. "I was a complete mess after what I did had sunken in. ...I went into shock. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. The Docs later said I had post-traumatic stress disorder. They tried to give me pills for it. But that wasn't the full story. I was afraid. ...terrified of what I realized I was capable of."

Amy stays silent. All these times she plotted her revenge she could never have imagined Bobby could already feeling remorseful. But she still couldn't put complete faith in what he is saying.

"I shot her," Bobby continued, "not because she was a wanted criminal or that she was putting me in danger, but because it had erupted from a most terrible rage. What I told you was true. I did hate her then. And in that anger, I lost control... and wounding her wasn't enough. All I could think of was killing her... and what's worse, I wanted the satisfaction of knowing you will watch her die." Bobby turns his hands so that he is facing his palms, a noticeable tremble now visible in the hands, the paleness returning to his face. Sweat drops now falling freely onto his shirt, soaking his neck.

Amy looks on in shock. Being a government agent meant that you would kill when necessary. Bobby always believed in that. So in her mind, she would never have believed that Bobby would feel anything other than complete justification for his actions that day.

As if following Amy's train of thoughts, he continues, "I never told anyone this, but in my missions, when I've had to kill an enemy in battle, I've always gained a small bit of enjoyment from it." Bobby's eyes remain fixed on his shaking palms, not bothering to hide the distressed tone in his voice.

"I kept telling myself that my excitement was only because I was upholding my duty to protect the country. But that day I found out the truth about me. My mind craved the thrill of murdering someone I despised... I wanted to see her blood spill out in a big red mess. I hungered to see the look on her face when she realizes her life is about to end and she could do nothing to stop it." His mouth begins to tremble. His eyes were wide open, sharp and frightening. He gets a hold of himself quickly though, and gives himself a long blink to settle himself once more.

"I had no idea this is what I am capable of. And since then, every time I touched, or even looked at a gun, it made me sick to my stomach. My hands would shake, my vision would blur, and I couldn't function." He clasps his unsteady hands and closes his eyes, trying to calm his nerves. "...Why did you think I was stuck at a desk job when you had those goons throw me into a van?"

Amy was still dismayed at what she was seeing and hearing. His question caught her off guard. It takes a moment for it to sink in before she stumbled, recalling the data their own intelligence had found for her. "The documents showed it was punishment for killing an unarmed suspect."

Bobby reopens his eyes and huffs in a small chuckle. "No. My bosses were lining up to shake my hand. Politicians wanted to give me awards. Everybody was congratulating me for being the one to finally take down the notorious Lucy Diamond. ...But I couldn't bear it. No matter what they said, the truth kept haunting me everywhere I went. ...I shot at someone in the back in cold blood. And God help me, for those few minutes ...I enjoyed doing it."

Amy stayed silent. Her gift at deceit and deception also correlated to being a good reader at whether a person is telling the truth. The tension in his voice, the gaze in his eyes, the paleness in his face... She could tell that this was no ruse.

"My father saw me, and how I reacted, and he was so ashamed of me. He called me an embarrassment to the family." Bobby says with a tinge of spite in his voice.

Amy wasn't surprised. The day Bobby introduced her to the senior Robert Matthews was one of the most unnerving days of her life. The man was once one of the most revered field agents ever to have worked for the NSA. Now a General, he oversees many of the top-secret missions the Agency conducts for the government. Amy cringes at the thought of what his reaction was to discover his own son now gets panic attacks just by handling a gun.

Bobby continues, "He kept insisting that I will recover, so he used his influence and made my bosses change the official story. They made it look like my change in job setting was forced by demotion, so that once I'm back to my old bloodthirsty self, they'd re-instate me and I'll be back in the fold, killing at will in the name of National Security."

Amy faintly snorts in a sarcastic tone. "So the once proud Agent Bobby Matthews, now a shirt-and-tie pencil-pusher in some office cubicle."

Bobby ignored Amy's taunt. "I may be a pencil-pusher, but at least like this, I will never have to see the monster I know is inside me."

"And yet you were goading me into killing you?" Amy asks with mild resentment in her voice.

The edges of Bobby's mouth perk up in the slightest smile. "I was taking my chances, but I knew you wouldn't do it."

Amy's eyes turned into a look of irritation. She had something to say about what she thought he meant by that, but Bobby spoke before she did.

"I know you more than you'd like to believe, Amy. Some things will never change. Go ahead and steal all the money you want, but you're no cold-blooded killer. No matter what has happened, or no matter how hard you try, you don't have that demon inside you waiting to break out of the cage, and you never will. It truly takes one to know one. And you are not like me."

A notion of absurdity comes to Amy's mind at the current situation. The one man in this world, whose actions made everything in her life change for the worst, is now declaring that she herself will never change. And by some freak twist of fate, it almost serves to make her feel better.

The increasingly surreal conversation between the two ex-agents lapse into a short duration of silence, both mentally drained at the stress of the day's events. In a way, each appreciated this overdue period of calmness.

Finally, Bobby spoke again. "You still really do love her, don't you?"

For the first time in a very long time, a small smile forms on Amy's face. She takes in the question slowly, letting it marinate in her thoughts. Many superlatives come to mind with this question, but she just lets one simple statement encompass it all. She sighs, and bites her bottom lip right before replying. "...More than anything."

Bobby then starts to shift in his position uncomfortably, as if there is some inner debate occurring. He inhales deeply as he closes his eyes, and then reopens them as he exhales.

"...Lucy's alive, Amy."

* * *

_Author's notes: _

_...Is Bobby telling the truth? ...Will Amy believe him? ...Find out in the next exciting installment of "Angel's Tears"!_


	5. Chapter 5

- Trust -

* * *

_Bobby then starts to shift in his position uncomfortably, as if there is some inner debate occurring. He inhales deeply as he closes his eyes, and then reopens them as he exhales. _

"_...Lucy's alive, Amy."_

Amy's eyes suddenly dart wide open, and her breath halts instantly at the words. 

"My gunshot didn't kill her. It was a cover-up."

It was like pure adrenaline rushed into Amy's body. She jumps up, and hurriedly runs over to the table across the room. She grabs the gun and the magazine off the table and slides them back together in one instantaneous motion. She then runs over towards Bobby while releasing the safety and cocking the chamber, and as soon as she reaches him, she points the gun right at Bobby's head.

The look on Amy's face was one of maximum alertness mixed with distraught outrage. "If you're fucking with me Bobby, not only will I kill you here and now I will rip the heart out of every member of your family with my bare hands, I swear it."

But Amy's angry threats didn't seem to faze him. He continues, "I'm not lying to you Amy. It is classified information. Only a handful of people know she's not dead, and they even tried to hide it from me."

Amy stands in shock; her mouth continues to gape open in disbelief. The hand holding the gun starts to tremble.

Bobby straightens his back and lets out a bitter sneer. "All this time, even though they kept kissing my ass for supposedly killing a wanted criminal, they hid her behind my back. Even when it became known how much psychological trauma it caused me, they kept on lying to me."

Bobby's voice begins to be colored with anger and resentment. "They didn't care that they were making me believe that she died from my hands. They kept smiling, patting my back, shaking my hand, all the while they were treating her at a government hospital and arranging a secured place to lock her in once she's recovered."

Amy sees another shift as his tone brightens to a satisfied leer. "...But despite those two-faced assholes, I found out their little secret. My boss, the director of Homeland Security, might be a man of tremendous authority but he's a moron on computers. So he often asks me for help with it. During one of those times, he stepped out, and I poked around at his classified files. One of them caught my eye, titled "Diamond Project". And it was when I looked inside, I found out the truth. All the private memos, all the hush-hush agreements, all the arrangements for her treatment and transport, and where they finally put her. ...After seeing the data, I wanted to throw up, and then I wanted to strangle my boss. ...But I kept silent, thinking the more trust I gain from him, the more time he'll leave me to his computer, and so more time I have to find out all of their dirty little secrets. So I'll know exactly what we'll come up against."

"...What we'll come up against?" Amy asks suspiciously.

"Yes, when we break in there to get her out." Bobby's tone shows dead seriousness.

Slowly, Amy lowers her gun to her side. She is mentally exhausted, and her breathing is long and haggard. She raises her free hand and rubs her temple like she had a migraine.

Bobby slowly rises from the floor. Determined, but trying to look sincere, he tries to explain gently what he knows while minimizing further threats to the integrity of his skull. "Amy, they had no interest in bringing her to justice. Catching her was important to them, but they had bigger fish to fry. Lucy stole a lot of money from private companies. But you know how it is with the world's governments; the priority has been and will always be to shut down those people whose actions limit the politicians' incomes. Hunting for thieves has never been as important to them as getting even with the competition."

Bobby searches for a sign of comprehension in Amy's tired eyes, and finds it. Every government agent eventually discovers that oftentimes, the only separation between the good guys and the bad guys is who has power over what. And for those sugar-lipped suits who claim elected representation and consequently has control over the police and state, that power usually translates into cash into their pockets via whatever means in their disposal, lawful or otherwise. Thus knowing this, an agent's duty is often complicated by the need to carefully know when to suddenly turn blind, all within the context of the subject's position within the hierarchy of influence. This was a facet of the job that had begun to trouble Amy tremendously before the end of her tenure as a DEBS agent.

"They wanted any information she might know of so many other criminal organizations all over the world." Bobby continued, "And if any of them knew she was still alive, they would change their tactics and locations to head off any information Lucy would have gave to the authorities. That's why they faked her death. They knew others would try to kill her while in custody because of what she could tell them. Only people at the highest levels of government were informed. I don't know who specifically because they were all identified in the files with codenames."

"...And so why do you tell me? Just to get even with them?" Suspicion still lingers in Amy's voice as her face rises to meet Bobby's.

A look of sorrow appears again on Bobby's face. His eyes close briefly as he sighs deeply. "There's that, but also... I'm not going to bother trying to gain your forgiveness, Amy. But I do want it from myself."

Amy stares at him, still unsure as to what to think. "Bobby, tell me this is real. Tell me you're not just giving me false hope." The voice aches, almost pleading to him.

Bobby looks sharply into Amy's eyes, hoping to make his statement clear. "This is the truth, Amy. I swear on my mother's grave I'm not lying to you." His voice echoing with definitive assuredness.

Amy takes a step backwards, and her breathing continues to quicken. Amy believes him. She probably shouldn't, under the circumstances. Take away the emotions involved, and she still believes he speaks the truth. Bobby bringing up his mother only accentuated her trust in him, as she knew from before that Bobby would rather cut off his right arm with a rusted steak knife than to make a derisive statement in regards to his mother. For him, this promise goes beyond any oath or commitment to any authority, law, country, or religion.

Lucy is alive... Lucy Diamond is alive... The thought repeats gleefully in Amy's mind. Her voice seems to be incapacitated as the implications of that possibility feel overwhelming in her head.

Bobby interjects, breaking Amy's train of thoughts effectively. "But I'm telling you now, it won't be easy."

Amy settles herself. Her face morphed into a sculpture of focused determination. "What do we need to do?"

* * *

- Operations Center - 

"What... the hell!" Scud asks Amy, sounding completely exasperated. "You let... him go?"

"Yes." Amy answers plainly. Amy sits on her, or rather, Lucy's desk, her eyes fixated on the virtual screens in front of her, showing what little information they had of the schematics and floor plan of the large warehouse where Bobby told her Lucy was being held.

"How do you know he won't just send an entire army of agents on us as soon as he can?" Scud asks, panicking.

"He won't. Even if they knew he was here, they wouldn't be able to get our location out of him. For our protection and his, I had him blinded before he was driven out to a safe area, at which point he drove home by himself."

"And may I ask why?"

"He needs to go to work today to avoid suspicion, and when his boss is at lunch, he'll get into his computer and copy the updated plans to Lucy's jail. Then he'll e-mail it to us. Later tonight, we meet up and he'll help us infiltrate the facility and get Lucy out."

"And why in God's name would he risk himself to do that?"

"...He wants to make amends for the past." Amy says hesitantly, knowing full well that wouldn't be a good enough answer for Scud.

Scud has heard just about enough. He pulls Amy's chair back and around towards him, pulling her sight away from the screens. To show his seriousness, he leans and rests his hands on the armrests, looking directly into Amy's eyes.

"Amy, I want for it to be true as much as you do, but think about it. We had him on a noose. He would say anything to get out of it. He knows that Lucy is your weakness. Don't you think his story is just a tad too convenient?"

Amy looks up at him, her eyes also conveying seriousness. Her voice becomes quiet and reassuring, "I know how it looks, Scud. You KNOW me. Something like this, I won't take lightly. But, I believe he is telling the truth. I know Lucy's out there, waiting for me to find her. And whatever it takes, I WILL find her."

Scud sighs. He never had any success in convincing Lucy not to do something he disapproved if she's bent on doing it. And he knew, he won't have much luck with Amy either. And just like Lucy, he would just have back her up the best he knows how, in case something goes wrong.

"And how do you know he can get you the plans?" Scud asks solemnly.

It was right then, the virtual monitors beep upon a received signal and several new screens pop up, each showing detailed schematics of the warehouse, with a detailed plan of Lucy's own cell, along with locations of guard postings and perimeter defense information.

Both Amy and Scud look at the information in awe, slack-jawed at the detailed data they're seeing. Amy turns back towards Scud, and with a sly smile on her face, she says, "I have a hunch."

- to be continued -


	6. Chapter 6

- Plan -

- Side street, 2200 hours -

They parked their van a safe distance away from the property where the warehouse is located. Amy, Bobby, and Scud are all inside, going over the plans and the equipment needed.

Scud rubs his temples, his voice bleak and worrisome. "A Level-3 Shock Field?"

"Yes," Bobby replies, "State of the art. It's not like the usual repel fields you normally see. A pen laser won't even scratch it. At full force, it will char your body into an overcooked slab of roast in about 90 seconds."

Scud gulps while staring stunned at Bobby.

Amy looks intently at the floor plans and the security. "There are not that many guards posted."

"They believe that since no one knows she's alive, the field is enough as primary defense." Bobby explains, "But don't be fooled. If there's a field disruption, a Code Red perimeter alarm will be triggered, which will send a signal to the Pentagon. After which, you'll only have about a few dozen military helicopters and a few hundred or so ground troops and SWAT members to deal with within 10 minutes."

Scud continues to rub his temples. "Yes, just the way I like to spend my evenings."

Amy nods towards the large metal box sitting at the corner of the van. "Is that enough to bypass the field?"

Bobby glances at the box. "Maybe. Does it have the upgrades I asked for?"

Scud answers, "Yes, but I don't know if it'll reach the 60 percent boost in power you wanted. With this kind of overcapacity, we have one shot at it, and then it's toast. And we were only able to obtain one of these things, so I couldn't even test it. The arch isolator seems to work though."

Bobby's face shows a tinge of concern. "That'll have to do. The field is designed so that no currently available device can neutralize it. We need to get the charge ratio down to below 5 percent for us to safely cross it."

Amy pushes on, "Alright, what's next?"

"Once we pass the field, things get a bit more involved." Bobby points to the schematics of the warehouse. "We get in by a side door, which is secured a simple card reader. We knock out the guards posted here, and here. First thing we'll need to do is get to the control room, here. It'll be manned, so be careful. Then we shut down the repel field around Lucy's cell and the motion sensors around it from the control room. Then, we go down the elevator to floor 2B, take out these guards, then Lucy's cell is in the next room."

"Then we're home free?" Amy asks with hope in her voice.

"Not quite," Bobby replies, "We can't go back the same way, since we have no way of breaking the charge field again. We'll need to leave through the main doorway on the second floor next to the hill, where there's a section of the charge field that can be shut down remotely from the inside controls for staff to enter and leave. Once it's shut down, we have 5 seconds to run 45 feet to the exit before the field reforms."

"Piece of cake." Scud says with a less-than enthusiastic shrug. Then his face stiffens as he remembers something important. He bellows out, "OH!..."

Both Bobby and Amy dart their heads over at him due to his outburst. This causes him to quickly cover his mouth with his hands in apology. He then removes his hands slowly, then continue at the regular volume again. "Don't forget, communication! We can use these ear-sets I got in case we get separated."

Scud turns around and pulls out a box. After opening it, he pulls out these plastic bracket-like devices. "These go around your ear like a wireless hands-free phone adaptor. There's a microphone, radio receiver and transmitter, and each have unique transmission frequencies. I decided against a watch visual communicator because frankly, the reception sucks. There's a small turn dial here, preset to our frequencies. First click is Amy, second click is for me, and third click is Bobby. Then press the dial down to call the person its set to. We can talk to each other with these." He then hands one to each of them.

As Bobby and Scud adjusts their ear-sets for comfort, Amy looks out the crack between the curtains towards the windshield, the warehouse in distant view. As she gazes on, her face is serious and determined. She promises silently to herself, "If you're in there, Lucy, I'm getting you out... whatever it takes."

* * *

- D.E.B.S. - 

- Warehouse Meeting Room -

"Oh my Gosh, Dominique, is that my sweater you're wearing?" Janet asks accusingly at her French squad team member, who's sitting casually on one of the chairs.

Dominique sits with her legs propped up on a table, cigarette in hand as usual. She turned to face her perky DEBS teammate, showing only a deadpan expression at the question. She exhales a charred lungful of smoke at Janet's direction.

"Oh wait, no, the sweater I'm thinking of has a different collar. Sorry!" Janet says apologetically after examining the clothing more closely, her hand trying to wave away the smoke migrating towards her.

The door opens suddenly, and Max walks commandingly into the room. She still has that confident swagger in the way she walked that made it clear to everyone who's the leader of her team.

"Alright. Our orders are to secure the premises for any hostiles." Max explains. "Under no circumstances can we allow them to reach the prisoner."

Janet looks annoyed. "I still don't get why Ms. Petrie asked us to do this job. We're spies, not security guards." Her face knotted in, looking like a confused sorority member.

"I don't know the full story, Janet." Max answered with slight impatience. "All I know is that somewhere underground, they're holding a dangerous convict, and that they suspect someone might be plotting to take him or kill him. Apparently, they discovered an unauthorized file transfer at Homeland Security regarding the details of this top-secret installation. They think it might be an inside job, so they don't want to notify any of their own personnel. So, they've asked us to help out." Max then raises her head up in pride. "And they asked for the best... Us."

Janet still doesn't look entirely convinced. Dominique couldn't give a rat's ass.

Max continues. "Because of the size of the building, we can't all stay at the same place. They have their usual guards in the hallways, but there are 3 key locations we need to position ourselves in. Dom, you watch the main lobby. The entrance is the only part of the security field that can be manually opened. Janet, you cover the hall that leads to the control room. Whoever is coming in would need to get in there to shut down the electronics. I'll cover the main floor administration hall. They'll need to get in there to reach the elevators to go down to reach the prisoner. Any questions?"

Janet sheepishly raises a single finger. Max nods over at Janet to let her ask.

"Who is this dangerous convict we're protecting?"

"I don't know." Max replies with a shrug.

"You didn't ask or they wouldn't tell you?" Janet presses on.

"They said it was classified information." Max says, trying to hide the small bit of resentment she feels at whoever's keeping secrets from them.

Janet couldn't say anything further. She just looked apprehensively at Max.

"Let's get into position." Max ordered, and the three DEBS agents quickly march out of the room.

* * *

- Infiltration - 

- Outer Perimeter of Warehouse -

Bobby, Amy, and Scud silently creep in the shadows until they reach the fencing that surrounds the perimeter of the Warehouse. They find a place that the rotating security cameras couldn't see due to stacked wooden crates blocking the view. It only took them a minute to cut through the metal wires of the fence. As with most government facilities nowadays, a metal fence is only decoration over the real security barricade. In this case, said barricade happens to be the most formidable invisible electrical barrier known to man.

Scud opens his scanner, and the screen displays the exact location of the field. They all approach it within a few feet, before quietly dropping all their equipment onto the ground. Amy opens up the large metal box that encloses the upgraded counter-pulse device, and flicks on the power switch.

Once activated, the small LCD screen lights up and displays its power capacity as well as the current status of the charge ratio in its proximity, currently at 0 and 98 percent, respectively. She pulls out the cylindrical-shaped pulse emitter, corded to the main machine, and places it carefully into the charge field. The emitter is designed to be able to withstand the effects of the charge field for a few minutes, and has been upgraded with an arch isolator, which creates an artificial boundary within the charge field that isolates a given area for them to disrupt, without creating a disturbance to the rest of the field.

"Here goes nothing..." Amy says without tremendous confidence. She activates the pulse.

Immediately, they see a half-circular section of the charge field flicker intermittently as a result of the pulses emitting through it, canceling out the electricity flowing through the field. Amy exhales in encouragement of the immediate results as the display shows the charge ratio down to 80 percent and still dropping.

Bobby and Scud continue their lookout of the surrounding area to check for suspicious activity, as Amy focuses on the machine. As the ratio drops, the device's power capacity moves up. Amy begins to feel a slight feeling of dread as she realizes the power capacity is moving faster than the charge ratio is dropping. If her suspicion is correct, the machine would max out its power capacity before the charge ratio drops below the required 5 percent. The device has now gone into the overcapacity range that Scud has upgraded it for, but the charge ratio is still at 30 percent.

"Bobby, Scud..." Amy calls out quietly. Both men look down at the display in horror as they see the power capacity at 153 percent and the charge ratio still at 21 percent. Amy looks up at both of them, the tension in her eyes evident. Bobby grinds his teeth in anger at the possibility that they will fail their mission in their very first stage.

Bobby stares at the display, as if in deep contemplation. Finally, he makes a choice.

"Scud, change of plans..." Bobby speaks in a serious tone. Amy and Scud look at him perplexed.

"There's a way to drop the charge further... Amy, it looks like you're going to have to go in there alone."

"Bobby?" Amy asks with concern.

"If a large body were to get in there and absorb some of the charge, that would leave one chance for you to jump in." Bobby continues, "Once you do, the pulse will overload and stop working with both bodies in the field at the same time, and then the charge field will recover instantaneously. There's no time for somebody else to jump in before the field comes back. So we only have one shot at this."

"Bobby..." Amy calls at him with tremendous worry in her voice.

"No time to discuss it. Jump in as soon as it drops below 5. Then remember the plan once you're inside." Right after he finishes speaking, Bobby lunges forward, and his body freezes in position as the shock grabs him immediately. His face is completely clenched, his teeth completely shut tight. The pain is absolutely excruciating, but he uses his full strength to prevent himself from screaming. Instead, a low grumble from his throat is the only sound he makes.

Amy stares at Bobby, completely astounded at his actions. She gasps as she notices that the charge is tearing him apart, even at one-fifth the usual intensity. Smoke begins to emit from his body, as bloody blisters start to form on his skin, which looks like it is shredding in the process. As some of the blisters rip open, gushes of blood start to flood all over his exposed skin, as well as beginning to drench his clothes from the inside. Suddenly, Amy catches herself, and returns her attention back at the screen. Relief shows on her face as she sees the charge ratio at 12 percent and dropping. However, the screen begins to flicker as the power capacity reaches 162 percent.

Scud's voice cuts in and warns, "Amy, you can't go in there by yourself. It's you against an entire security team. It's too dangerous."

Amy hears him, but stays silent. As the ratio drops to 9 percent, she gathers her weapons and a small duffle bag of equipment, and takes one last look at the floor plan. She returns her eyes to the display, and it falls to 6... then to 5. She lurches over, jumping through the charge field in a quick dispersing field spread. The pulse device nearly explodes as the electronics inside burn out completely, causing the screen to shut off and sparks to fly out from the fried internal circuits. Bobby, now released from the field, falls forward, and his body slams hard onto the ground, splattering a massive volume of blood over the concrete. The disrupted section of the charge field quickly returns to its normal state, trapping Amy and a now completely collapsed Bobby inside the field, and Scud, helplessly, outside it.

Amy holsters her weapons and drops the bag in quick motions. She then bends down, and grabs onto Bobby. She pulls him to safety behind one of the wooden crates, and rests his back onto one of them.

"Bobby? ...Bobby!" Amy calls at him, shaking his arms in the process. There was no response.

"Bobby!" Amy calls again, trying to keep her voice low to avoid attention. Again, there was no movement from the bloodied face and closed eyes. She reaches to feel the pulse in his neck, but felt nothing. Amy drops her head and closes her eyes as tears begin to fall on her face.

"...Bobby." Amy's voice weakens into a whisper as she calls his name.

Amy raises her hand and cups his cheek. She opens her eyes and looks at his wretched body with tremendous hurt and sadness. This is the man she once detested with a passion. Now, the thought of him dying is too much to bear.

Suddenly, she feels a slight twitch in the hand over his cheek. Amy looks up, and feels a newfound rush of excitement as Bobby coughs tenuously in succession. A huge smile forms on Amy's face as she quickly leans in to hug him tightly.

"Ow, ow!" Bobby cries through clenched eyes as he awakens to a painful grip on his sore body.

Amy pulls back immediately, showing apology on her face, but still with a smile. "Oh, oh! Sorry! Are you alright?"

A short cough is expelled again though Bobby's mouth, clearing the blood from his airways. His body starts to tremble noticeably, and his breaths are shallow. "...I need a vacation. Maui sounds pretty good about now."

Amy reaches into one of her pockets, and pulls out a handkerchief. She begins to wipe his face of the bloody spills; careful not to touch the tender areas where there were blisters and torn skin. Stray tears still linger on Amy's face, but are now tears of relief. "I thought you were a goner, my friend."

Bobby chuckled quietly. "Takes more than that to kill me, babe. But it's a good thing you gave my body some practice time with that contraption of yours."

Amy smiles embarrassingly at the memory of yesterday's events when she had him prisoner, locked in the electrified stretcher.

"They'll find you here, you know? They'll realize you helped me." Concern emanates through Amy's voice.

"Don't worry about me." Bobby assures in a coarse voice. "My dad will make some calls, it'll be fine."

Amy smiles warmly. "I'll find you some help. You need treatment."

"Absolutely not. Not until you've found her. Go! Get her back. And I know this is no consolation, but tell her... I'm sorry." Bobby whispers, using more strength than he had, as his body continues to shiver. "Go! I'll be fine."

Amy takes a final wipe with the cloth. Bobby's face now clean and dry as much as it can be at this point. Then she leans in, and gives him a gentle kiss on the forehead. Bobby smiles in appreciation.

Amy gets up, grabs the pack and slips the strap over her shoulder, and turns to look at Scud. Surprisingly, she finds Scud standing there, with puffy red eyes and quivering lips. When he realizes Amy saw him, he immediately tries to wipe his eyes dry and sniffle the awkward expression away. Amy was speechless. It was quite surprising to see Scud in such an emotional state. This was a sensitive side in him she never expected to see.

"Scud, take all the stuff and get it back to the van. Then get into position and wait for us to come out. I'll try to communicate with you whenever I can." Amy says as she points to the device hooked around her ear.

Scud nods, then speaks after clearing his throat, "Go get her back, Amy. Good luck."

Right before Amy turns to scan for a clean path to the door, she says simply, and confidently, "I will."

- to be continued -


	7. Chapter 7

- The Facility -

- Warehouse Grounds -

As the cameras swivel side to side on the outer walls of the warehouse, Amy watches intently at the rhythm in order to match the timing properly. Once she saw an opening where the cameras were simultaneously away from her, she bolted into the grounds, aiming for one of the side doors of the building.

Once she is there, she turns around and scans the periphery to see if any guards were coming towards her. There are none. She knows she is fortunate the security isn't as tight as what it could have been. It surprised even her that they were so confident at the protection afforded by the field that the number of security personnel was minimized to this extent. Having been on both sides of the law, she is one to know, complacency is often your worst enemy.

She takes a quick look at the card reader the door is secured with. A red LED on the pad is blinking to show it is locked. Immediately, she reaches inside her pouch and pulls out a card, one with an electronic mechanism built on the opposite side of the magnetic strip. She slides the card down the reader, but in a slow and steady motion. The display on the corner of the card lights up a series of scrolling numbers as it moves down, automatically scanning for a correct code. Finally, once the card has passed the reader, the LED turns green, and Amy can hear the lock mechanism releasing.

- Hallway -

Using her M9 stun handgun with built-in silencer as her weapon of choice, Amy didn't have any difficulty knocking the first 6 guards out cold as Amy silently snakes her way through the halls. Recalling the updated floor plan of the building that Bobby obtained for her, she meandered cautiously through the maze of corridors that would eventually lead to her first destination: The control room.

Amy eventually reaches the last corner that leads to the long hallway where the control room is located, and halts there. She realizes the sheer length of the hallway makes it difficult for her to surprise any guards that might be positioned close to the far end. From the schematics, another card lock is used to secure the door to the control room. Therefore, there is not enough time for her to run into the hall and bypass the lock, even if the guards happen to be looking away from the door for a few moments.

Amy removes her watch from her wrist, folds the band over into a handle, and protrudes the face of the watch into the corner and quickly snaps a button on the band. She pulls it back quickly and begins to study closely the display on the watch, which has a built-in high-resolution digital camera that makes it useful in situations such as this.

As she examines the image, Amy is at first surprised to find only one guard at the end of the hall. After zooming into the picture for a closer view, she is stunned to find that it is no ordinary guard, but one of her close old friends from what seemed like years ago, but really only months. Janet, ex-teammate and knitted fashion connoisseur, is now standing guard with apparent disinterest with gun in hand, obstructing Amy's access to her first destination.

Amy stares at the watch curiously. Why is Janet here? And if she's here, does it mean that other DEBS are stationed here as well? And finally, does she or any of the DEBS even know the identity of the prisoner the facility is holding?

Realizing there is no time for speculating her ex-teammates' purpose, Amy proceeds with the plan. She returns to the last hall she came from, and enters a room in the next corner. Using a desk as support, she climbs up, removes the ventilation grating from the wall, and crawls in.

The aluminum shafts would normally echo loudly the noises her arms and legs make as she makes her way though, but luckily, her training has prepared her for such an occasion, and Amy is able to slither through the shaft in relative silence. She finally reaches the grating on the wall of the control room, and looks inside. There are a total of 4 people in the room, 3 of them look to be technicians manning each of the control panels. The last person sits in a centralized control station at the far side of the wall, his back towards Amy's point of view. Many flat panel computer monitors surround that particular station; each divided into quarters to show 4 camera angles of what is likely the prisoner cells.

Amy wishes she is close enough to see the monitors more clearly, but from her distance, she cannot make out any detail in the displays. But if her plan succeeds in this step, that problem will be rectified shortly.

In her backpack, she reaches in and pulls out a pair of cutters. Using a lot of care to ensure her silence, she makes a pair of cuts into the grating to open a hole large enough for her gun to slip through and for the mounted sight to be able to see. Amy has only one try at this: She needs to be able to knock out all four of the personnel in four successive shots in order to prevent even one from pushing the alarm button. She decides on the best possible strategy, shooting the closest one to her first, then to the other 2 technicians, then finally the farthest target, the one sitting casually by the far station with the panel displays. She steadies her gun in her hands while her eyes carefully peering into the sight, and prepares to fire.

In short, quick whistles, the gun releases the stun rounds as Amy accurately shoots at the technicians. After the first went down, it caught the immediate attention of the other targets, but Amy was able to pick off the next one within a second of the first. The third went down just as quick. Finally, as she swivels her gun towards the final target, she sees that he has just went out of her sight as he quickly ducked behind one of the cabinets. Amy clenches her teeth in frustration at missing the last target, but fortunately for Amy, in his haste, he hid in a place away from where the alarm button is located.

Wasting no time, Amy pushed the grating, making it tumble to the floor. She shoves her body forward, catching the edge of the vent and flipping herself over, allowing her to land safely on the table underneath. She steps down to the floor, with her gun directly aimed at the gap beside the filing cabinet where the last target was hiding.

"Get the hell out of there," Amy hissed at the man. "Don't think you can hide beside that cabinet. I saw you going in there. And if you try anything funny, I'll make sure you die much slower than your friends just did." Amy bluffed, gambling on the fact that the other 3 went down too quick for the man to be able to tell that she used stun rounds.

Amy saw the edges of this body shuffle as he stands himself up. Immediately, she notices from the body movement that he wasn't very intimidated. He seems to move casually, without any sign of fear that his life is in danger. So he is either brave, or calling Amy's bluff.

As he steps out from the corner, Amy face turns into a look of surprise as she recognizes the face revealed from the shadow.

It was entirely from habit that she called him the way she called him the last time she saw him.

"Mr.-- Mr. Matthews?"

A snicker forms on his middle-aged face. "Well, well, well. If it isn't little Ms. Perfect Score."

Amy tries to speak, still incredulous at why Bobby's father would be here keeping watch on Lucy's cell. "Mr. Matthews? What are you doing here?"

"That's General Matthews to you, little girl. I am guarding very dangerous criminals here. You would be wise to stop your actions now before it becomes an act of treason." The man speaks with a commanding voice befitting a well-decorated veteran soldier.

Amy's face tightens in anger. "You have no right to hold her here. She didn't even get a fair trial."

A knowing look appears on the man's face. "Ah, I wonder what ridiculous information you paid your informants for, Ms. Bradshaw. But I must applaud you for being able to find this place, as well as getting through our supposedly impenetrable field."

He then switches back to a serious face. "But you wish for a trial for these foul individuals? My dear, trials are only legislated freak shows for your everyday criminals so that the ignorant public minds believe that justice is being accomplished. The people who take residence here are special. A trial is irrelevant if the CNN-viewing public does not know we have them in custody. So once they've outlived their usefulness we can dispose of them with whatever methods we wish, and no one would really care."

Amy's eyes narrow at the undisguised brashness. The respect she once held for this man is quickly eroding bare.

"But I really have no idea what you expect to find here that would be of any use for you." The man continued to jab. "You're in way over your head. Why don't you go back to your little estrogen agency and your little plaid skirts, and leave the real work to us?"

Amy has heard just about enough from this man. She raises her gun, but before she is able to reach it to eye-level, the man gazes at her in amusement and speaks again.

"What the hell is that, an M9?" The man smirks at her, and then says mockingly, "Too afraid to shed a little blood are we? A soldier would not be afraid to kill. You're very fortunate I didn't have the foresight to carry a sidearm with me to this place. Otherwise you would have a large gaping hole between those pretty eyes of yours already. You are timid, and weak." His expression then becomes much less composed and much less authoritative. "...You are not so much different than that bastard son of mine."

This catches Amy's attention, and she stops just short of firing. She knows there is no time to waste, but she felt she had to say something at that last statement.

"Bobby is more brave than you'll ever bother to find out, General." Amy almost hissed when saying his title. "It's too bad you're more worried about being a soldier than you are at being a father."

"HOW DARE YOU!" The General snapped. Despite her newfound dislike for the man, the outburst from the loud deep voice made Amy's body quickly tense up. "Who are _you_ to tell me I'm not a good father?" I've given him more opportunities than any kid could ever have hoped for. I taught him everything I know. I trained him tirelessly to make him the kind of man every boy wants to be! And what did he do with my generosity? ...He gets into a pansy fit just because he shot somebody?"

"And so you hide the truth from him? Make him think he did kill someone in cold blood? That was your solution?"

"I did what was necessary to make sure he knew what it took to be a soldier. And if the facts get distorted as a result, then so be it. And why am I discussing this with you? You of all people should already know. He wasn't even man enough for you, as I recall, and you had to turn _lezbo_ just to be satisfied. ...What, he couldn't get it up? Was that it?"

Amy had already lost most of her composure by this time. "You really are a pompous ass if you think he was the reason for me and Lucy. I had already broken up with Bobby before I met her. ...Is that why you're in command here, so that you can torture her for making me leave Bobby?"

The narrow sneering look on the General's face indicated to Amy that there was a lot of truth in what she just accused him of. But of course, she would never expect a man of his arrogance to ever admit it.

Suddenly, to Amy's complete surprise, the man breaks out in a hateful fit of laughter. "You think... that Lucy Diamond is here?" He huffs out in between chuckles. "So is that why you've graced us with your presence this evening? Breaking your little girlfriend out of prison? Sorry to break this to you honey, she's not here. If you look hard enough you might be able to find her ashes bottled up in some landfill."

Despite all her intuition telling her that he is trying to deceive her, a part of her is immersed in dread at the seemingly remote possibility that what he's saying could be true.

It was too late by the time she realizes her hesitation gave him the opportunity he was looking for. In a quick motion, he ducked down underneath the table between them and pushed the table upwards with his shoulders at Amy, hitting her right hand and knocking the gun out of it as a result. Amy instinctively used her hands to block the table from hitting her face, but feels her feet give out as the man grabbed her ankles and pulled them towards him, forcing Amy to lose balance.

Amy falls painfully on her back as her legs are pulled forward. She quickly realizes the table she just stopped is now about to drop on her head. What made the situation more distressing was the fact the General had already gotten up and was walking around her body, presumably towards her head to inflict much more damage than what the weight of the table could.

In a quick reflexive action, she used her hands and again, halted the movement of the table as it dropped. The table was much heavier than it looked, but she exerted as much force as she could, and lunged it back at the General as he was walking towards her. The quick recourse of the table took the General by surprise, and it smashed onto his upper body, knocking him down in the process. The table tumbles over, and lands right back on its legs as it stops to a standstill right by a wall of electronics.

Realizing her advantage, Amy pulled out her secondary weapon: A silencer-equipped SOCOM, loaded with the type of bullets even the General would approve, provided he wasn't on the receiving end of it. Amy pointed the gun right at the man's head, and got up cautiously.

The General grimaces at the pain, especially the throbbing from his palms and wrists that took the brunt of the charging tabletop. His face growls in frustration at his defeat. He turns over, and uses his elbows to prop himself back up.

To discourage him from making any further moves, Amy nudged the barrel of her gun slightly to the right, and fired the gun. The bullet whistled past the General inches from his head and planted itself into the steel cabinets against the wall with an ominous clank. His face stilled in alertness as the bullet caught his attention.

"You wanted real bullets, General. Make another move and you'll have one rip through your eye socket." Amy warns in a serious voice. Amy steps back until her M9 was visible, and cautiously bends down to pick it up from the floor, never pulling her attention or her aim from the man.

"You talk about bravery and courage," Amy says spitefully, "Tell me General, would any of your courageous soldiers go up against your shock field with their own bodies in order to accomplish an important mission?"

The man amuses sarcastically, "Well, I don't believe you had done _that_, little girl. You don't have a scratch on you. Even if you used a pulse emitter, it'll roast your body into a smoldering carcass. No one would ever dare try that."

Amy raises the M9 at the General. "Your son did just that to get me in. He's hurt badly. He almost died from it."

The General gazed with an incredulous expression at Amy.

"If you had been honest with him from the beginning, he wouldn't have needed to do that. You have no idea what he's been going through in the last few months. Now, more than ever, he needs his father. The field didn't kill him, but if you won't give him any support and understanding, you _will_ lose him forever."

The tight grimace on the man's face gives Amy a small sign that her words are sinking in, even if only slightly. Amy wishes she has more time to convince him, but she doesn't.

"It's your choice General, and you'll have to live with the consequences of that choice." Amy then pulls the trigger of the M9, firing a shot at the man's chest. In a few short moments, he stumbled down to the floor, into the forced state of sleep the sedatives gave.

Amy holsters her guns and hurriedly steps over to the screens of the control station the General was monitoring from. Immediately, she notices the screens are now all black, with only the words, "Standby..." on the bottom left corner of every screen. Amy turns towards the central keyboard, and begins to type. The monitors simultaneously blink open a new frame, and to Amy's unimaginable dismay, it shows, "Security Control Lock Down: - Enter Password to Override."

With desperation, Amy types in a few random words and names from Bobby's family with no success. The General must have activated the lock right before he ducked behind the cabinet.

"Dammit!" Amy huffed. She quickly remembers the communicator still around her ear and activates it. "Scud! Can you hear me?"

Amy hears confused fumbling in her ear and finally Scud's voice. "Amy! You scared the shit out of me!"

"Scud! I'm locked out of the monitors. I need a code."

"Ok, here's what you do. First, download Nmap 2.94BETA35 from my secured FTP site and run it to find a vulnerable SSH server, then interlace the code using the SSH5 and CRC64."

Amy stares blankly at the keyboard. If Amy had a weakness as an agent, it was in the field of computer programming and hacking. It had never been an issue in the past. As a DEB, she always had Janet do all the computer work. As a new criminal mastermind, she obviously had Scud take care of all that. Now that she's in this alone, that little shortcoming is now a major problem.

The chain of thoughts is interrupted when Amy ominously hears the sound of a hammer being pulled back on a gun close to her. Amy turns around quickly; her right hand instinctively reaches for her gun resting in the holster. Amy's eyes dart open as she meets the gaze of the person holding a gun to her face from across the room...

- to be continued -


	8. Chapter 8

_The chain of thoughts is interrupted when Amy ominously hears the sound of a hammer being pulled back on a gun close to her. Amy turns around quickly; her right hand instinctively reaches for her gun resting in the holster. Amy's eyes dart open as she meets the gaze of the person holding a gun to her face from across the room._

"Janet?"

"Amy?" The petite blonde DEBS agent and ex-teammate stares at her with astonished eyes. "Oh my God, Amy! Is that you?" Janet begins to lower her gun, but as the situation sinks in, she catches herself and raises it back up.

"Janet, please." Amy pleads with her. A part of her mind is increasingly distraught as she realizes the plan to rescue Lucy is quickly faltering, finding herself between a computer she can't hack into and an agent with a gun to her head.

"What are you doing here, Amy? And why did you steal all that money since you left? I've never known you to be so greedy." Janet babbles on, seemingly confused as to whether this was a reunion between friends or an interrogation at a suspect.

Ignoring the second part of the question, Amy answers, "They've got Lucy locked up here, Janet. I have to get her out."

Janet's face twisted as it always did when perplexed. "What? ...Lucy's dead, Amy." She suddenly feels regretful that she has to remind her friend of this sad fact.

"No, Janet. She's here." Amy said with sureness in her voice. "They locked her up here in secret and lied to us all about it."

Amy then proceeds to summarize to an incredulous-looking Janet about what she knows of this place, and what Bobby did to get her inside. She knew there would be a risk in telling her, but at this juncture, there was really no other choice.

Janet now looked even more confused, if it were possible. She didn't know what to say. She's either being let in on a major government conspiracy or her friend has lost more than a few marbles since her departure. It was like her veins have frozen shut. Janet stood there stunned, confused as to what to do next.

Janet never really cared for Lucy in particular. For a while, she was resentful of her, feeling that she was taking advantage of a vulnerable Amy, who had broken up a relationship only a few hours prior. But later she saw, quite undeniably, how miserable Amy became after she was apart from her; how it broke Amy's heart to deliver a speech condemning her; how happy Amy looked when she finally told the world she wanted nothing else but to be with her; and how it completely shattered her spirit when Amy was told she was dead.

Amy tries to steady her voice as she tries to reason with her old friend. "Janet, I need your help. I need to get into the computer to disable the field around her cell. I know you can help me. ...Please." Amy slowly raises her hand to her ear, removes the transmitter, and offers it to Janet. "Scud has an idea, talk to him."

It seems now the pressure on Janet was doubled with that last statement. She would not only be assisting a wanted criminal to break into a government computer, but also equally as alarming was the prospect of speaking with the man she lost; the quirky man who at one point she felt like she was falling in love with.

Janet looks at the blank computer screens with only a small message displayed on each one. Whoever it was they are holding, it's clear that their security protocols also include hiding the identity of the person in the event of a lockdown. This entire mission to protect the facility seemed fishy right from the beginning, especially since they seemed to have been told so little about the place. Amy's explanation might not be completely plausible, but it makes far more sense than what any of her superiors had told her.

Janet lowered her gun, stepped forward, and reached for the transmitter. She wrapped it around her ear, and with tremendous apprehension, she spoke. "Hello?"

"...Janet?" Scud replied after a pause. They both seemed unable to utter another word for the next few moments, but then Scud finally breaks the silence.

"Janet, I'm sorry I broke off contact like that. I was distraught, depressed... I couldn't cope..." Scud fumbled in his words. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd be making this speech today.

"Never mind that now, Scud." Janet spoke seriously without the usual wide variances in vocal tone she usually speaks with. "How do I get in?"

Amy smiled in relief as Janet seems to be comprehending Scud's instructions and translating them into commands into the computer. It really was a lot ask of her, probably too much. If anybody found out, not only would her career be in serious jeopardy, but she could also be tried for aiding a criminal act. As well, Amy briefly notices by looking at her collar, that she still hasn't received her stripes. If she is caught, she will probably never get them. This just goes to show how good a friend she has here, and also makes Amy more than a bit regretful that she abandoned the team so abruptly.

"I'm in." Janet speaks without any of the usual excitement she usually has when she's successful in a computer hack.

Amy quickly turns towards the screen, but only sees a screen full of numbers and codes.

"The system is still in lockdown. I was able to start a maintenance cycle to initialize shutdown of the field and the motion sensors, but the cameras are still out." Janet says somberly. "But the system is pre-set to a 10-minute delay before field shutdown, and it will only be off for 2 minutes and 15 seconds. That's your only window of opportunity to get her out."

Amy looks at her watch and sets the timer for 12 minutes. "Thank you, so very much Janet." Amy looks at her friend with gratefulness she hasn't expressed in ages.

"Don't mention it." Janet replies softly. Then a small smirk of playfulness returns to her face. "Really Amy. DON'T mention it."

"I won't. I promise." Amy smiles. She straightens the straps on her shoulders that's holding up her backpack, turns, and heads for the door.

"Amy! I... I didn't come here alone."

"...I figured as much. How are Dom and Max these days?"

"Dom will always be Dom. Max... well, It hasn't been easy. And she's rejected every new recruit they try to bring to us."

Amy opened her mouth to speak but couldn't really find the words to say anything of value. But Janet continued, "Don't forget this." Janet points to the transmitter in her ear.

Just as Janet was about to remove the device, Scud chimes in. "Janet... It was really nice to talk to you again. I've missed you."

Janet hesitates with her hands on the device, before finally responding, "Good talking with you too Scud." Then quickly pulled it off her ear and tossed it to Amy, who grabbed it with a knowing smile and positioned it back on her ear.

* * *

- to be continued - 


	9. Chapter 9

- Corridor -

After making her way through the halls to finally reach the main administration room where the elevators are, Amy carefully peeks over the corner to see if there are any guards. Seeing none, she walks silently along the wall, across the room, and finally reaching the elevator door.

A severely ominous feeling hangs in Amy's mind as she presses the down button to call the elevator. Aside from some motion sensors she's had to deposit bullets into, there seems to be very little resistance for her to get here from the control room. It's either that it looks much easier than it really is or she just got lucky.

Just as she's thinking this, her ears pick up the slightest of noises from far behind her and she automatically dives sideways behind a desk near her. She tumbles over and looks back at the elevator door, which she now finds is decorated with 2 nerve pellets right in front of where she was just standing 2 seconds ago.

Amy reaches and pulls out her M9, partially disgusted of the fact she was surprised by some low-level security guard, and raises it to position.

She begins to peek her head forward to see if she can spot the location of the guard, but before she gets there, a metal clank rings off the top of the desk and a metallic cylindrical-shaped device drops to the floor close to her.

Amy leaps over the desk with no hesitation to avoid the effects of an exploding grenade, but as she did this, rounds were flying around her. Amy twists her body in an acrobatic somersault, lands back on the floor, and hurriedly behind another desk. Luckily, none of the rounds hit her, but she quickly realizes when there was no explosion that the grenade was just a blank dud the shooter used to fish her out from behind the desk.

Amy curses at her position. The attacker had the advantage. Amy had no idea where the opponent is while she's as good as an open target. She looks at her watch, which indicated she has about 6 minutes to get to Lucy's cell. The elevator rings off a cheerful ding and a few moments later, the door swings open. Unfortunately from this distance it would be most unwise to make a run for it.

As Amy was formulating her plan, a buzz in her ear took her attention, and a voice came on. "You're getting rusty, Amy. The Amy I used to know would have been able to instantaneously spot a dummy grenade from a real one." Amy had a look of disbelief upon hearing the familiar voice coming from her transmitter. "Too busy stealing money to keep up with your training? What a shame. So much for the Perfect Score."

"Max?" The named shivered through Amy's voice.

"No Amy. It's Mother Teresa." The voice bellowed sarcastically through the transmitter. "It was very careless of you to use a broad-range transmitter. Not too hard to isolate your frequency for someone like me, in case you've forgotten. And thanks to you, our friend Janet is now looking at a Court Marshal and possibly 5 to 10 years of jail time."

"Max! Stop it. Don't you know what you are doing? They have Lucy hidden here, held captive in order to extract information from her." Amy pleads into the transmitter while continually checking around for any signs of Max's location. Her frustration mounts when she notices the elevator door close shut on the other side of the room.

"Well if that's the case, I'm signing up here permanently just to make sure she never sees daylight." Max answers apathetically, after which she fires another couple of shots in the direction of the desk Amy is hidden behind.

Amy clenches her body at the sound of the nerve pellets bouncing off the counter above her. A part of her is reeling from hearing Max's spiteful words. Max was her best friend, one who helped her through many of the harder times through school. And here she is now, firing successive rounds of nerve pellets at her. While not usually lethal, nerve pellets are designed to elicit a brief period of extreme pain as well as potent mental sedation and excessive muscle relaxation in order to effectively subdue a victim. It is not a pleasant process to go through. Max is obviously not shooting to kill, but her using this ammunition indicates she has no qualms about inflicting suffering on her old teammate.

Realizing that she will not get anywhere through rational discussion, Amy rolls her body sideways on the floor and stops when she has a clear view toward the direction of some scaffolding on the far side of the room. Clusters of fluorescent lights being hung by long cords from the ceiling illuminate the room, so the upper part of the scaffolding is unlit. Amy raises her M9 and fires a few random shots towards that direction, hoping to draw a response. It works. Amy sees a figure in the dimness ducking for cover. She fires a few more rounds towards the direction and jumps up and away out of her precarious hiding place. One stray round shatters a fluorescent tube, causing sparks to drop to the floor, another stray breaks a wire holding up another ceiling lamp, causing the lamp to dangle on a single cord and one of the fluorescent tubes inside to blink as if in distress.

Max dives onto one of the metal ramps to avoid the gunfire. As she lands hard, she immediately feels the platform buckling under her weight. It was too late when she tried to stand back up as the hinges snapped and she fell with the platform 15 feet down towards a desk. As she crashes, the combined weight of her and the platform quickly turned the desk into a splintering pile of shattered wood.

Max winces in pain. She quickly assesses for any broken bones. Feeling none, she props herself back up and rushes towards the side of a filing cabinet. She takes long deep breaths as she tries to mentally push away the pain in her aching muscles. She realizes hiding at the scaffolding may not have been the best idea. When they converted this old warehouse into a secret holding facility, it would have been far too unreasonable to expect that the government had the foresight to reinforce some of the worn and rusted beams.

Turning her attention back at the current conflict, Max scans the room for any signs of her old friend. It seems that Amy has found herself a new hiding spot, as there was not nearly enough time for her to return to the elevator and wait for the door to reopen. Unfortunately for Max, the fall made her drop her weapon and it's nowhere to be seen. The situation was definitely a cause for concern.

She knows stepping out would make her a target if Amy's watching her, but she couldn't just stay there helpless with a filing cabinet being the only security. She's gambling on the fact that Amy was just hiding, trying not to be seen, while figuring out how to get into the elevator. She cautiously steps forward; keeping her body low while trying to avoid making any noises, and keeping her eyes wide open as she examines the room for anything that could possibly look like a part of Amy or the weapon she lost.

As she continues to creep along on cat's paws down the side of the room, Max spots her gun on the floor next to one of the office chairs, about 8 feet from where she landed. She begins to quicken her pace towards it, but a voice from behind her stopped her in her tracks.

"Max."

Max's face grimaces in anger as she realizes she is caught. She rolls her jaw in disgust but tries to maintain her cool. Even without looking, she knows Amy has her gun towards her.

"What now, Amy?" Max asks tiredly after straightening her posture. "Knock me out, break out your mentor and lover, and terrorize the world for profit? You want to be the world's first lesbian couple to threaten for world domination?"

"What has made you so angry, Max?" Amy asks with distressed confusion at her former squad leader. "And don't say it's because of my heists because I know you could care less about what I stole from who. Your calling card is your career ambition, but I know, you did so well at the Agency because you loved the chase. You loved the adrenaline rush from tracking down your target as they ran in fear, whoever it was. Sometimes, I even get the feeling you were disappointed when we catch somebody because the chase would be over. When you attacked me just now, it was personal. You wanted to punish me. ...Why?"

Max slowly and deliberately turned around. Her steel eyes met the inquisitive ones as though there were 2 invisible swords clashed in a battle of wills. Max clenched her teeth, resistant to spill the harboring resentment. Finally, words formed in her lips. "...You left us."

Amy didn't reply immediately, but just through those three words, she had a fragment of understanding of what she was trying to say.

"Max..."

"You abandoned us!" Max hisses, as she feels the anger built up from the last few months emerging. "You took all we had worked so hard to get and threw it all in the dumpster like it was fucking garbage!"

"Max, it wasn't about the team. You know that."

"Of course it's about the team!" Max barks back. "We were so close to being the agents we trained so long to be! You fucked up once, and we fixed it... And you go and fuck it all up again, and all because of some girl you were experimenting with! And even after she got what was coming to her, you leave the team anyway to take up where she left off?"

"I love her Max. When I was with her, for the first time in my life, I felt my life had meaning. Why couldn't you see that?"

"All I saw was some flake with Stockholm Syndrome who couldn't keep her knees shut, and who could never be counted on by any of her friends. If you're going to shoot me with that thing, do it now. But I promise you the next time we meet, you are going down."

Amy's eyes narrowed. She put both her hands on the gun to steady her aim. "You want me to shoot, Max? Fine."

Max held her breath as Amy steadied her finger on the trigger. Just as Amy was about to fire, Amy pulled her aim towards the side and pulled the trigger.

Max reflexively turned around as the shell zipped past her shoulder. As if guided by a wire, the shot landed dead center on the down call button of the elevator door, which lit up as it was pressed from the pressure of the blast. The shell shattered into pieces on impact, and Max can see immediately that the shell was empty.

Max turned back quickly, but Amy was gone. Without hesitation, Max runs toward her gun, grabs it, and turns back to scan the room. She peers around, with numerous desks and shelves in the way, there were many places for Amy to hide. She hears the elevator door re-open behind her, but ignores it. She knows Amy is looking for the opportunity to come out before it closes, so Max knew she couldn't hide long.

"Out of ammo on that stun-gun of yours, eh?" Max sneers. There was no response.

The edges of Max's mouth creep up as she notices Amy's backpack protruding from the side of one of the desks near where she fell, fidgeting gently. She steps forward cautiously, not wanting to give Amy any indication that she's been spotted. As she approaches the desk, she peers over, hoping to sneak up behind Amy. But as the rest of the backpack becomes visible, she sees it strapped around a functioning foot massager that had been pulled upright.

"Shit!" Max exclaims, and immediately turns around, just enough to see Amy diving out behind her and running at top speed towards the gaping elevator door.

Max raises her gun towards the opening; at the same time Amy swings her arm out with her SOCOM handgun. Both fire successive blasts at their targets, each not knowing immediately if they've hit. Amy tumbles into the elevator just as it begins to close. Max hears a noise above her, and looks up, but it was too late as she realizes the ceiling lamp that was dangling on one wire had just had its lone remaining wire shot off. There was no time to run, and all she could do was brace her body as the lamp crashes down on her back. The plastic panels and steel-enclosed electrical boxes disintegrates apart from the aluminum frame, and the fluorescent tubes shatter as they all crash over and around her, slamming her body to the floor.

Amy squirms as she adjusts herself on the floor of the elevator. Her face clenches, her free hand immediately clutches the wound on her shoulder. She wasn't hit by the entire nerve pellet, but enough of it caused a deep grazing wound on her shoulder and subsequently turn all the nerves down her upper left side into an overactive mess. Trying to withstand the pain, she pulls herself towards the front of the elevator, reaches up, and presses the 2B button. Soon, she feels the descent as the elevator starts to move. A quick check at her watch shows less than 2 minutes left. Just a couple of security guards remaining in a hallway before reaching Lucy, but she's running out of time. As her mind begins to fog, Amy closes her eyes for a brief rest. Another step to her goal has been achieved, but it's getting harder to think clearly through the unflinching pain and body muscles that seem to be petrifying with each passing second...

* * *

- to be continued - 


	10. Chapter 10

- Floor 2B -

The "ding" sound of the elevator as the door opened stirred Amy back to partial awareness. Her thoughts are incoherent, and it takes her a few moments to remember just where she was and what she needs to do next. Her unfocused mind finally concluded that the sedatives in the nerve pellets have affected her significantly. She tries to move, but is startled to find her muscles are as heavy as lead. As she strains to recover her strength, she was only able to prop her body up with her arms, but standing up is currently out of the question.

Amy reaches into her holster, but finds it empty. After some difficult recollection, she realized she dropped her SOCOM when she was hit, right before she was able to dive into the elevator. She discarded her M9 upstairs when it ran out of ammo, and whatever was left in her backpack is no longer recoverable since she used it as a decoy for Max. So at this moment, she was completely weaponless. And with her body currently in shutdown mode, she can't imagine being able to land a single punch.

Her eyes water and a lone tear slides down Amy's cheek as she realizes her situation is dire to say the least. She has precious little time before she reaches Lucy, and she can barely move. The elevator door begins to close, and Amy forces her arm forward to halt it. Even that motion took an excruciating amount of effort, and sent a jolt of pain and distress through her body. Her face twisted in agony as she forced herself in a slow crawl out of the elevator. She was lucky there were no guards posted by the elevator, but she knows avoiding them later is impossible. She checks her watch: 30 seconds.

Amy takes a deep breath. Her focus sharpens simply through pure determination. Although it caused escalating pain, she pulled herself up by holding onto a railing by the wall, and willed her legs to step forward in sequence. Her movement was slow, but she was making some progress. She reaches the corner of the hallway. If Bobby's data is correct, there should be a guard posted right after this corner. Another guard should be just before the door to Lucy's cell room, only a few meters farther.

She has really no idea what she expects to do to subdue this guard, but with only seconds to go, all she could do was move. But just moving is causing tremendous strain on Amy's tired body, and she feels her strength weakening.

And just as she turns the corner, her legs give, and her body drops to a half-sitting position by the wall. Her breathing is long and haggard, and her bunched hair is wet from perspiration. She could only open her eyes to a tiny sliver, and from here, she can see the alerted guard, whose expression could only be described as both surprise and confusion.

The guard approaches her, obviously perplexed. He has his rifle drawn at her as he comes near. As he gets close enough, he crassly poked at the side of Amy's face with the barrel of the rifle to draw out a response.

All Amy could do was to sit there, hoping some strength will come back to her. Her eyes shift to her watch, and an unimaginable level of despair fills her emotions as the display reads a row of zeros.

Game Over, Bradshaw.

The guard lets out a short chuckle as he continues to gaze at Amy. He steps back, lowers his rifle confidently and pulls out his radio.

"Hey Phil, get down over here."

Soon, Amy could hear a pair of footsteps approaching as another guard rounded out from the far corner.

"What's going on, Ray? You know I'm supposed to guard the door."

"You're too busy napping on the chair to be guarding a damn thing, Phil." He answers sarcastically. "Anyhow, I don't think that's going to be much a problem anymore." The man then gestures to Amy. "Say hi to our intruder."

"No shit man! This girl is the security risk our boss warned us about today?

"That's what I'm thinking. But it looks to me like she's hurt real bad or she's high on something."

"And what a fucking babe!" The second guard snorts. "I'd sure like a piece of that ass."

"Hey I found her first, so you wait your fucking turn. Keep attention down the main hall and warn me if somebody comes in from the elevators. After I'm done, you're gonna get sloppy seconds."

They both holler out a pair of sniveling laughs, before the first man turned back to Amy. His face twists out a lascivious grin as he begins to unbuckle his belt. The other man stood leaning to the left wall, an eager look on his face as though he can't wait for the show.

Amy could feel her energy returning but only in miniscule quantities. She is able to keep her eyes open wider than a minute ago, but she is still very disoriented. However, with the current view she'd rather be blind. In fact if her body had enough strength she would probably be vomiting at the sight of his genitals being pulled out of his pants. As it is now, she barely has enough energy to keep her head up, and as well her mind is obviously still reeling from missing the opportunity to get Lucy out in time.

Amy feels her hair painfully bunched, and her head being shoved forcefully onto the wall. The man has his pants dropped down to his ankles along with a thick utility belt.

"You're going to enjoy this more than me, darling." Amy heard the slithering voice above her.

But suddenly, a loud voice from another catches everybody's attention.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHRRRRRGGHH!"

A furious scream bellowed through the hall as a figure jumps out from the far corner with what appears to be a metal chair. Both men quickly turned to the direction of the angry voice. The chair is swung heavily around as soon as it appears, and in a quick flash, the steel slams onto the face of the guard by the wall, resulting in a sickening crunch as the man's skull mashes onto the concrete surface.

Amy's attacker stared in horror as his friend's face is smashed in followed by the entire 6-foot frame crumbling to the floor unconscious. Realizing her opportunity, Amy took advantage. Enlisting the instant energy gained from a combination of pure adrenaline, sheer will, and seething anger, she reaches for a device she spotted in the utility belt, grabs it, and pulls herself up quickly from the floor while he was still looking away. She positioned her body for balance and then struck her knee upwards between the man's bare legs with power unsurpassed even when she wasn't sedated.

The impact was so severe the guard couldn't expel enough breath to scream. But there wasn't time for him to gasp before Amy flicked on the Taser-like device in her hand, dialed it to maximum setting and jabbed the unfriendly end of the electrical weapon hard onto the tip of the engorged organ protruding from just above where her knee had struck.

The man belted out the most horrified scream in a pitch and volume rivaling actresses in a horror movie. His body folds into itself as both his hands try for a tenuous hold on his freshly roasted and flattened genitalia. His agony will be postponed for the moment however, as the woman with the chair came at him and struck him behind the head with it with unrestrained fury, knocking him out cold instantly.

Amy leaned back onto the wall in exhaustion. Forcing her body to move so quick at this condition was unimaginably excruciating. As the strength falters from her legs again, she gazes at the one who came to her rescue. Once she recognizes who it was, she gives a weak, relieved smile, before her body begins to drop to the floor...

- to be continued -

* * *

_Author's Notes: This chapter dedicated to Ayrki. :-)_

_

* * *

_


	11. Chapter 11

_Amy leaned back onto the wall in exhaustion. Forcing her body to move so quick at this condition was unimaginably excruciating. As the strength falters from her legs again, she gazes at the one who came to her rescue. Once she recognizes who it was, she gives a weak, relieved smile, before her body begins to drop to the floor..._

_

* * *

_

- Floor 2B, continued -

Lucy Diamond discarded the hapless chair aside and dashed in quickly to grab a hold of Amy before she fell. Tears swelled up freely in her eyes as she clutched onto the blonde with grip born of excitement and concern. As soon as she felt her body stabilize, she lowered Amy down gently and allowed her to relax. Lucy then raised her hands and cupped the soft, tired cheeks. She looked at Amy's exasperated face with extreme worry.

"Amy! ...Amy! What happened to you? Talk to me!" Lucy pleaded breathlessly, but from the recent gash on Amy's shoulder, Lucy can guess getting here wasn't a pleasant journey for her.

Lucy's voice, one Amy has wanted to hear for so long a time, stirred Amy up to half-alertness. She smiles again. Tears proceed to cascade down her cheeks as she gazes at her. She has wished and prayed for this for so long, now it's happening, Amy wonders if her delirious mind is playing cruel tricks on her.

"...Lucy. ...Is it ...you?" Amy finally whimpers out the words, as she raises her heavy arm up to reach for her face.

Lucy sees this and she takes hold of the rising hand and places it over her own cheek, her hand caressing Amy's as she gently leans her face onto Amy's palm. "Yes! Yes it's me, baby... I'm here. I missed you so much!"

"I... missed you!" By now Amy's eyes and cheeks were completely soaked. She could feel about a hundred little watery droplets clump together under her jaw and slide to her chin, resulting in huge droplets falling to the floor.

Lucy pulls herself forward and it's the feeling of heaven as their lips meet. Amy's lips still felt every bit the same as how Lucy had remembered it, aside from a bit of added salt from the tears. The warmth, the desire, the need she felt from the blonde is still absolutely intoxicating. Resisting the temptation of completely losing herself here, Lucy finally breaks the kiss, and then lets herself breathe deeply as the physiological need for air catches up to her emotions. Their eyes meet, both wordlessly signaling to each other just how much they've craved this feeling for far too long, then they press onto each other and embrace in a desperate hold. Both sob into each other's shoulders as though they are clinging on for life.

"They... they told me... you died... I... I thought I'd lost you!" Amy mumbles with her face buried into Lucy's chin.

Lucy finally pulls back, both her hands in a protective but gentle hold over Amy's cheek and shoulder.

"It's okay... shh..." Lucy guides her thumb across Amy's lower lip. "We're together again. That's all that matters..." She leans in until their foreheads touch. "I love you so much."

Amy's face opens to the widest, happiest smile she's ever shown in the past few months. She whispers, "...I love you, Lucy."

Lucy couldn't help but to smile back as she brushes her own tears away. Her greatest fear during the last few months wasn't being locked up in prison for long term. It was either not being able to see Amy again or, despite how selfish it seemed, that Amy had already moved on...

* * *

- Imprisonment - 

- Holding Cells, 8 hours ago -

As far as prisons go, it really isn't the worst place to be trapped in. Lucy thinks to herself as she sits on the bed, her back against the wall, looking around at the same room where she's been locked in for the past couple of months. Thinking useless thoughts was pretty much all she could do here, as they've placed only very basic needs within this large plastic shell. It was reasonably clean, and was spacious enough that she could pace around without feeling claustrophobic. The clear walls also gave the illusion of space, even though she was restricted within the confines of the 3-inch thick plastic dividers. She also thankfully had her own bathroom, which was the only place in the cell with painted walls and a painted ceiling. This gave the impression that it might be the only place she had access to that the several dozen cameras outside couldn't reach; although she was smart enough to know that it didn't mean she had any freedom while inside it.

Despite the relative comfort and cleanliness of her prison cell, it was tremendously difficult to prevent insanity to creep in to any degree. Trapped in the same sterile environment for such a length of time could take its toll on anybody's psychological balance, especially when the only people from the outside she is allowed to speak to are these uptight men in suits who would visit her every so often to ask her more idiotic questions about her former contacts and associates. Her response has always been the same, one truthful answer to their questions in exchange for one hour of seeing and talking with Amy Bradshaw. They always refused. They were waiting her out, believing she'll eventually cave in to the length of time being alone. But during the last visit, she had the feeling they were getting impatient, and that their tactics will likely escalate to something a bit more... severe, in order to force the information out of her.

Besides them, the only person she can talk to is whoever's in command up in the control room, watching her with the cameras. Lucy had no idea who this person is, only that he spoke through the speakers with a tone indicative that he was someone of relatively high position of authority.

The only thing that has been preserving Lucy's mental focus was the hope that she will eventually be reunited with the girl she fell in love with. It was out of the desperation of trying to get this girl back that resulted in her gaining the effects of a bullet ripping through her body, followed by 3 weeks in coma and then permanent residence in this maximum-security cell. As she has done countless times since she was thrown in here, she keeps thinking back to the time she last saw the stunning super-Agent.

" -----

I finally found her once I made my way over to a balcony I walked into. Amy looked simply dazzling, as she always does. She was speaking at center stage in a breathtaking blue dress, illuminated by a warm spotlight. The sight instantly made me forget that I was trying to run away from her angry ex-boyfriend, who seemed bent on putting a bullet in my head. The things she was saying about me, it was ...heartbreaking. But I knew ...I knew in my heart she didn't believe any of it.

Then, she looked up, and I catch her eye. In spite of what she just said, in spite of her continued rejection of me after returning to her friends, all I could do was smile at her. I just wanted to take her by the hand, bring her to wherever she wants to go, and hold her close. No amount of money or precious gems in this world can match the sheer gratification I get when she smiles that gorgeous smile of hers.

Then, to my unbelievable joy, she announces to the world that she wants to be with me, and that she's willing to sacrifice her career and the approval of her friends and family for me. I see the pain and uncertainty disappear from her eyes as she speaks. I stood there, mesmerized by the feeling of elation that is flooding through me right then.

Then it all crashed down in a deafening blast.

If I had died there, at least I would have died with the knowledge that she truly loved me, as I love her. I stumble and grasp the ledge as I look at her confused eyes from the distance. In my draining consciousness, I fall, and I hear her scream. It was a tormented, bloody scream. I knew then, I could not die that day. There was no chance in hell I was going to leave this world without having told her I love her. Somehow, I had to be strong, and hold on for her, and hold on for that joyful day to kiss those lips again...

----- "

Lucy's right hand migrates towards the top of her prison overalls, and she reaches underneath. The sensation still feels strange to her, as the fingers gently run over the knot of skin that lies to the right of her sternum, just below the collarbone. The shot missed her aorta by less than a centimeter. The wound no longer has that sore tenderness she felt underneath, but the skin still feels foreign there, as though they had grafted someone else's bullet exit wound onto her chest.

The intermittent alarm bell shakes Lucy from her thoughts. She turns her gaze towards the flashing blue light near the top of one of the walls. It was lunchtime, and so she knew she would have to follow the same ritual they've outlined for her three times per day. Slowly, she pulls herself out of the bed, and shuffles slowly over to the table. She sits down, and obediently rests her arms down the side of the steel chair that has been bolted to the floor. The magnets embedded within the chair are charged by remote control, and once activated, links with the large magnetic bracelets they locked onto her wrists. She hears that familiar beep, and quickly, the bracelets snap onto the side of the chair, effectively locking her arms into place. The server walks in with a tray, causing a brief electrical flash as he walks through the force field protecting the entrance to her cell. He walks over to the table and rests the tray down. He doesn't notice the glint in Lucy's eye as she focuses on the utensils placed neatly alongside the main plate.

The poor man didn't even know what was happening in the flurry of sudden movements until he found himself pinned down onto the table, his arms bent in a very painful position behind his back. He stopped breathing when he notices the plastic knife held precariously to his throat.

"If they refuse to let me go, I'm splitting your jugular open." Lucy gave a grim warning as she tightens her hold on her hostage. "This knife might be plastic, but I'm willing to bet it'll still do some major damage if used properly. And I'm telling you now, I am VERY good with knives."

Once Lucy is satisfied she's got a secure hold on her hostage, she raises her head and looks up towards the general direction of the cameras pointed above. "Hey assholes! Get me the hell out of here or you'll be taking him back to his family in a body bag."

There was no answer. The only sound Lucy hears is the short panicked gasps for breath from the man she has pinned down. This angered her further.

She shouts again. "Hey! Are you listening to me?"

Further silence, until finally, Lucy hears a slight static sound as the man in the control room starts to speak. It was the same seasoned, militaristic voice that ordered her compliance many times in the past. Lucy had hoped this would finally give her an advantage over the usually arrogant voice. But the tone of the answer Lucy received remained insolent.

"My, my, Lucy. How ever did you get out of the magnet restraints?" The voice asked curiously.

"It was only a matter of time before I figured out your third rate equipment," Lucy barked back.

The voice chuckled pompously. "I'm impressed, Lucy. Someone in our hardware department is getting fired today. In the meantime, why don't you drop that Dixie knife and eat your lunch like a good girl?"

Lucy's frustration continues to mount. After so much planning, not only are her actions not achieving the desired response, her captors are actually mocking her in the process. She continues, "Are you listening to me? Let me go or he dies!"

"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy... you think this is all it takes for us to release you? We've been after you for years, Lucy. We're not about to let you go over some kitchen employee."

Lucy's eyes narrows, and digs the serrated portion of the plastic knife deeper into the neck of the shaking victim, causing him to quiver deeper in fear. "You have five seconds to shut off the force field!"

"He knew the risks when he was hired for the job. He even signed a waiver. Go ahead and kill him. The only thing that would change is you'll just have to cut your meatloaf with a bloodied knife. I'll leave you two to sort things out amongst yourselves. Now if you'll excuse me, my Filet Mignon is getting cold."

The sound of a thud followed by a short static buzz was a clear message to Lucy that the intercom has been turned off, thus signaling the end to the negotiations. Lucy just stands flabbergasted at the utter crassness of these people, even if an innocent life is at stake. And they had the nerve to call her the "ruthless criminal."

Dismayed at the turn of events, she suddenly remembers the shaking man she still has held up with a knife to his throat. A part of her wanted to kill him just out of frustration, to show that she is true to her words. But she knows herself too much to truly believe that to be a possibility. Despite her reputation, she would not kill a person just to prove a point.

With a quick push of her hands, Lucy releases the man from her grip and shoves him forward. "Get the hell out." She tried to sound indignant, trying to hide the hurt in her voice from her complete failure.

Still quivering like a frightened child, the server quickly stumbles over to the entrance and runs out, causing another flash as he crosses the force field.

Lucy turns around, walks back to the bed with her shoulders slumped, and sits down. She pulls herself back towards the wall, crosses her arms and sprawls her legs over the sheets. She wanted to scream. Scream so loud that hopefully Amy could hear, wherever she is. But she restrains herself from doing so and just continues to stare blankly. Despite her attempts to remain strong, moisture begins to swell into her eyes. One lone tear eventually spills down over a cheek. Miserable and dejected, she begins to wonder whether she will ever be able to look into the eyes of her Amy again...

* * *

- to be continued into present time - 


	12. Chapter 12

- The Facility, Continued -

* * *

Lucy looks at the wound on Amy's shoulder. "What happened to you?"

"Nerve pellet." Amy answers plainly. "...From an old friend."

Lucy pauses for a moment, then decides to let her elaborate on that later. She turns around and takes a look at the fallen guards. Eyeing something useful, she gets up and walks to the first victim of the chair, reaches to the side holster, and pulls out a handgun. She feels the weight of it in her hands, and then pulls out the magazine to check for rounds. She turns back to Amy, but is greeted by a disapproving look on Amy's face.

"It's just for our protection." Lucy reassures as though reading Amy's mind. "I promise."

Amy gives a weak nod back.

Lucy slips the gun into her pants pocket then leans back down towards Amy. "Think you'll be able to stand?" Lucy asks, while retightening her hold on Amy's hands.

"...Yeah." Amy whispers.

Lucy helps Amy up and props the blonde's arm across her own shoulder. With her near arm, she wraps it across Amy's back and around to her side, steadying her as she strained to move. Lucy is dressed in prison overalls, thoughtfully made with loud-orange fabric. The only other item she's wearing save for dark slip-on shoes are a pair of garish-looking metal bracelets.

"So... something tells me you're not exactly here by invitation." Lucy states playfully.

"...Not quite."

"I see. What are your bosses going to think about that, Ms. Perfect Score?"

Amy stayed silent. At this moment, she didn't really know how to tell Lucy that in her absence, she has stepped out of her goody-two-shoes and has replaced Lucy as one of the worlds most feared and successful criminals. She couldn't tell her right away how things have changed, how she has changed. All in good time, as they say. But ultimately, Amy was uncertain and nervous as to how Lucy would respond.

"We have to get to the elevator..." Amy seems to be straining as she tries to speak, while trying to keep her mind focused on continuing with the plan. "...Then to the second floor, then across the building to the main entrance."

"Yes ma'am!" Lucy says gleefully, eliciting a smile back from Amy. They both slowly make their way towards the elevator. Not wanting to let go of the weakened blonde, Lucy raised her leg and kicked at the up call button.

"How... did you get out?" Amy asks curiously as they both step into the elevator as soon as the door opened.

"One of the things I do to pass time in there was to flick a bar of soap bottle against the repel field, and watch it bounce back to me." Lucy recounts with a smile after kicking the button to floor 2. "You can imagine my surprise when for the first time ever, the soap didn't come back."

As the elevator door closes and they feel the movement upwards, Amy continues in a muted voice, "The field was down for only two minutes... You just happened to be doing that? ...Just coincidence?"

"Well, not exactly coincidence," Lucy answers playfully, "...I had been doing that for the last 3 hours."

Amy looks at Lucy with half-opened eyes and a sheepish smile.

Lucy looks back at her, slightly blushing. "Hey! It's not like they gave me a video game to occupy myself with in there, you know?"

Amy smiles warmly at her. Lucy gives a short chuckle back. Amy presses the side of her face onto Lucy's neck, reveling in the feeling of Lucy's skin on her own. Lucy notices this, and gives Amy an understanding squeeze with her supporting hand draped over to Amy's hip.

As the schematics of the building come back to Amy's thoughts, her face turns serious again. "There are more guards posted on the second floor."

Lucy didn't flinch. She continues to clutch onto the weak girl firmly, and states simply, "Leave them to me."

* * *

- Floor 2 - 

A guard makes his pass to the corner of the hall, and then takes a look down the corridor. As with the last hundred or so times he's done this today, he sees nothing, and so turns around and walks back to the center foyer, knowing he will return to check this corner in less than a minute. This job can certainly get to the point of being excruciatingly boring, but it pays well, and he gets full dental.

About halfway down the hall before the foyer, he hears something roll on the floor behind him. He turns quickly, suddenly alert, and draws ready his rifle. A can of Sprite rolls down from the corridor, casually hitting the near wall before finally resting to a stop. He steps cautiously into the direction of the corner he had just checked; ready for anything that might come out to surprise him.

He leans to his right onto the wall, and peers his head into the corner, but sees nothing. He knows there is a room close by used to store various drinks and snacks for the staff, and figures the can might have come from there. He steps forward to investigate. After a last check down the corridor to make sure no one is coming from there, he juts his leg forward, pushing in the slightly open door to the dark storage room. With his rifle held forward with his right hand, he reaches with his left to flip on the light switch.

A case of Sprite had been tipped over from one of the shelves: The likely source of the can. As he steps into the room, he peers around to check for anybody present, but he was too slow...

In quick motion, his rifle was grabbed from the side and wrestled off his hand. All he could see from the onslaught was a pair of tanned hands, large silver bracelets, and orange-clad arms taking hold of his gun, before seeing the butt of the handle at the last second before it approached his forehead at high velocity...

* * *

- Center Foyer - 

The two guards panicked as they tried in vain to ready their rifles before they were attacked. It took a single second to realize the person who just walked in wearing their uniform wasn't one of their own, but a second delay was all Lucy needed to surprise them. Lucy dropkicked one in the kneecap before planting a heavy knee into the diaphragm, knocking the wind out of him instantly. The second one didn't fare much better, feeling the blunt end of a rifle shatter his nose before seeing the rifle held backwards swung hard onto the side of this head. The man tumbled to the floor, out cold. Instantly, Lucy returned to the first guard who was kneeling on the floor gasping for breath, and swung the rifle onto the back of his head, taking away his consciousness for the time being.

After she scanned the vicinity for any more immediate obstacles, she darted back in the direction she came from, down the corridor, and back to her ailing girlfriend, who sat on the floor against the wall, barely keeping her eyes open.

"C'mon baby, stay with me!" Lucy encouraged the sedated blonde as she helped pry her off the floor. A weak mumble was all the response she got, but she can feel that Amy is trying to exert some energy to pull herself up.

Lucy guided her down the corridor and into the foyer, trying hard to keep her balance while supporting as much of Amy's weight as possible with her shoulder. Amy seems to be gaining strength as they go, as Lucy feels their speed picking up and Amy shifting less weight onto her. Hopefully this means the nerve pellet is wearing off. They're halfway to the main entrance at least, but still, Lucy didn't like at the thought of needing to let Amy down to take out more guards.

At the moment though, Lucy's dread suddenly deepened as she hears light footsteps behind her, as well as the sound of a hammer being pulled back on a revolver.

"Going somewhere, inmate?" The woman's commanding voice echoes between the narrow walls.

Amy's eyes suddenly dart open in a chill. It was Max's voice.

Lucy begins to turn around, her heartbeat racing as she finds herself caught off-guard.

"Eh - eh - eh..." Max warns, freezing Lucy at her position. "Slowly take out the weapon in your pants, because I know for sure you're not just happy to see me."

If she were alone, Lucy would have about ten different plans already in mind on how to get out of this. But this time, she has the love of her life weakened in her arms and she will not do anything to risk her. Lucy sighs, then slowly reaches into her pocket, pulls out the gun delicately, and drops it to the floor. Lucy knew the drill and knew what Max would say next, and so she kicks the gun lightly to make it slide backwards to the wall next to Max.

As Lucy turns around fully and finally sees the one threatening their freedom, she is surprised to find this girl in a complete mess: She has fragments of plastic and glass in her untidy hair, dirt and rips decorate her DEBS uniform, as well as several recent cuts to her arms and legs.

"Perfect," Max gleams, "it looks like now I can add three counts of Assault with a deadly weapon to your list of charges, Ms. Diamond." She then focuses her eyes on her former teammate. "Was it worth it Amy? Was it worth the 100 million dollars you stole? What a shame you won't get to enjoy any of it."

Lucy gazes at Max, her expression a mixture of surprise and confusion.

Max's mouth crept up and chuckled. "Oh I guess she neglected to mention, but your girlfriend here took over your job and now has more warrants out for her arrest than even you had in your glory days. She's become a greedy little thief, just like you were."

A bewildered Lucy turned to look at Amy, but Amy just let her eyes fall and her face drop. She was going to explain it all, but never wanted to do so here.

As much as Lucy's curiosity wanted to know more about these new revelations, she had more pressing matters. She turned to Max. "Listen, I'll make you a deal." Lucy asks sternly while trying to be calm. "I'll stay locked up here and tell you all you want to know about my old associates, but just let Amy go."

"You are in no position to make a deal with me, Diamond." Max balks back. "And I couldn't give a shit about your old associates. This is about justice."

"No Max." Amy cuts in, catching both Lucy and Max's attention immediately. Amy raises her head slightly to face her former squad leader. "This is about your pride. It's always been. You couldn't care about my happiness as long as I continued to help your career."

"Shut up, traitor." Max hissed.

"Ever since our first meeting with Lucy, and when you found out about us, then in all the time they made us believe she was dead, have you ever once asked me what I wanted?"

"You couldn't have known what was best for you in your state of mind," Max's voice gets louder in defense. "I knew what was best for you, but you wouldn't listen to me."

"I didn't listen to you because I was sick of everybody telling me how I should lead my life. I didn't want to be somebody else's poster child anymore. I wanted my life back. If you were truly my friend you should have seen that and supported me through it."

"Supported _YOU_?" Max amused. "What? Was I supposed to applaud you while you took over a criminal organization? Were you expecting me to break out the pom-poms for every million you pocketed?"

"No. I expected a friend. Do you realize after I thought Lucy had died, it felt as though I've lost the only person who truly understood me? And do you have any idea how completely alone I felt everyday since? Everybody wanted me to be this perfect being. I can't be perfect, Max. And I can't keep pretending I am for you or anybody else. With Lucy, I don't need to be perfect. I can just be me. I couldn't bear the thought that she was taken from me. You have no idea what it was like, to feel as though you have this huge empty space where your heart should be. Please Max, let us be together finally."

A brief flicker of dark memories flash before Max's eyes as Amy speaks those words. She quickly shook them off, but the emotional echo of those images lingered. In all her training, Max always knew what to do, what to say, in any situation. Now, with her gun pointed at two of the most wanted criminals in the world, she knew exactly the lines she is supposed to speak. Max aims right for the brunette, and speaks. "Lucy Diamond..." But suddenly, the voice escapes her.

After a moment, Max regains her focus, her eyes sharpen, and her face shows determination. "...You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law..."

Amy closes her eyes and sighs tiredly. Lucy's mouth clenches in frustration. But out from the corner of her eye, she sees a figure approaching.

Max stops her speech when she hears the footsteps beside her as well as the sound of a gun raised to her head.

"Max." The figure says sheepishly.

Max quickly turns her face to the direction of the gun pointed at her, while keeping her own aim still. Her face becomes exasperated and angry at the voice she recognized right away.

Janet says once again. "Max." Then continues with the most sincere voice, "Let them go."

"Janet!" Max hissed. "What the HELL do you think you are doing?"

"What I think is right." Janet simply answers. "I'm helping a friend."

Max's seething gaze returns to the 2 fugitives, but keeps the gun pointed at them. "I am also your friend, Janet." Max says with a slightly resentful tone.

"And I would do the same for you if you were in the same position." Janet answers quickly, her voice far from the squeaky tone the team had gotten used to hearing from her. "But this time, I'm trying to help you out as much as her. If you do this Max, you will regret it forever. And no number of promotions or awards will make it easier for you."

"Shut up." Max mumbles in a low breath. "I know what I'm doing. And I know, you don't have the guts to shoot me here. Not for this."

Janet blinks, sighs, and lowers her gun. "No, you're right, I don't." She then walks around in front of Max and stops, and stands with her chest right in the trajectory of the gun in Max's hand.

"JANET!" Max screams at her, with emotion in her voice filled with anguish and shock.

"Amy, Lucy." Janet says, keeping her face towards Max. "You two better get going."

Amy had tears in her eyes. She breathlessly utters Janet's name before being pulled back by Lucy. After a short moment of resistance, Amy lets herself be pulled away. Despite the agonizing sight of her two closest friends in conflict, she knows she can't help the situation by staying.

As the two girls shuffle down the hall, both Janet and Max were still playing the staring game with each other. Max still hasn't moved her gun's aim from Janet's body.

"How can you do this?" Max whispers, her face was flushed, her words were filled with hurt.

"She loves her, Max... whether we understand it or not. Imagine what she had to go through at Endgame."

Max stayed silent.

"I know, you were in love once, madly in love... and it ended sadly." Janet continues sympathetically, "...Don't deny it, I've known for a long time."

Max's concentration begins to falter with the returning memories, but tries not to show it in her face.

"...What would you do to get that feeling back?"

Suddenly, Max exhales, she blinks a few times as drops of tears begin to fall down her face. Her breaths become shallow gasps.

"...Anything." Max whispers, and then allows her arms to relax and let the gun lower out of harm's way.

* * *

- to be continued - 


	13. Chapter 13

- Lobby -

Amy and Lucy reach the lobby of the main entrance. Amy's strength has improved, but she still had to exert a tremendous amount of energy to get here. But once they reached the open floor, Amy's legs were drained. She collapses to her knees and breathed heavily, sweat was dripping down her neck.

Lucy immediately went to her, kneeled in front of her, and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. She knew Amy was exhausted, but with the exit only meters away, they can't spare too much time.

"I... I'm sorry..." Amy huffed in between long breaths.

"Shh... it's okay." Lucy reassured, as her fingers begin to stroke the curves on Amy's back.

"...I wish I were stronger. I wish you could... just run away from this place. You were captured once... because I was too weak." Amy whispered as her breathing begins to level.

Lucy pulled back, held Amy's face with both hands, and looked right into her eyes to show her sincerity. "You are strong, Amy. You have always been. That's one of the things I love about you. It wasn't your fault I got here, it was mine." She then smiles gently and continues, "And it was worth getting captured just to hear you tell everyone you wanted to be with me."

Amy returned with a weak, but loving smile. Then, she takes a big breath, and using Lucy as support, she pulls herself back up.

As soon as they stand, both see a figure coming in from the shadow in the right side hallway, the body slowly stepping into the light. Even before this person showed her face, it was obvious from the long legs and the puff of smoke being exhaled that this is the final member of Amy's old team.

Amy couldn't help but to feel completely exasperated at this point. Dominique is yet another ex-teammate she needs to convince to let them go. And as the French-Japanese Agent steps completely out of the shadows, not only can you see her face, but also the twin-barreled shotgun she holds with the hand not holding the cigarette.

Just as Lucy was about to say something to begin the negotiations, Dominique surprises them both by something neither of them expected.

She gave them a warm smile.

After a last puff of smoke, she drops the cigarette to the floor and steps it off with her stilettos. Her face returns to the unsmiling seriousness she is always known to show. She then flips the large heavy shotgun over to her shoulder, and speaks coyly with her thick French accent.

"I'm on a coffee break."

As both Lucy and Amy look on with perplexed expressions on their faces, Dominique turns around swiftly and saunters back into the hall. Her legs and hips sashaying like a fashion model on a runway... a fashion model carrying a shotgun with twin 12-gauge barrels, that is.

Amy and Lucy each turn to look at each other, but since they have no time to question what had just happened, they dart off into the exit.

* * *

- Breach - 

A 45-foot long tunnel runs from the outside to the building entrance. The ceiling is littered with cameras and microphones, but with no one conscious in the control room to see or hear them, that wouldn't matter at this point. There are two metal arches near the tunnel opening 15 feet apart, each emitting a separate repel field. Lucy drops Amy off right before the first arch, and so when Lucy shuts down the field from the control module by the building entrance, Amy doesn't have far to run to the outside. However, that means Lucy would need to be the one to run the distance from the entrance to the outer threshold, and she only has 5 seconds to do so.

"As soon as you see me start running, you gun for it." Lucy says sternly. "I'll see you outside."

Amy nods cautiously, before Lucy leans in with a passionate kiss. They soon pull apart, and Lucy smiles before running back towards the building.

Lucy reaches the control panel, and begins to type in the exit command.

"This is it." Lucy can't help but think to herself with both excitement and nervousness. Only seconds to freedom from this accursed place, and with her, the girl of her dreams.

After a quick scan of the area to make sure it is clear, she takes a quick breath, and presses the 'enter' button.

Amy looks up above her, and sees the light indicators in both archways go off, along with the sound of the electronic hum fade to silence.

She turns to Lucy, and sees her jump away from the controls, then running at maximum speed towards her.

Amy makes a break for it. Running on pure adrenaline, she darts towards the gaping exit, expending as much of her recovered energy as needed. Soon she was outside of the farthest threshold, and she was out. Quickly breathless, she turns to look at Lucy, and sees her already close to the first archway.

Lucy was mentally counting the seconds down. As she approaches the first arch, she knows there's 2 full seconds left. At her rate, that would be plenty of time.

She blazes past the first arch, but immediately, a deafening siren blazes around her.

"CODE RED AT ENTRY CHECKPOINT... CODE RED AT ENTRY CHECKPOINT..." The robotic voice continued to repeat loudly in conjunction with the alarm.

Lucy continues, but can see the outer field has already reappeared in between her and Amy. She slows down and tentatively approaches the field with her raised hand. As she does this, she sees the diodes surrounding the large metal bracelet on her wrist are flashing like a Christmas tree. She looks at the other one, and not surprisingly, it's doing the same thing. These devices must have been designed to trigger the perimeter defenses in case of a breakout, a secondary function to these bracelets she hadn't anticipated. She quickly turns to look behind her, and she can see the first field has also returned.

Amy looks on in horror at what just happened. It took a moment to recall what Bobby warned her about a Code Red alarm, essentially a 10-minute countdown to a complete and overwhelming military presence. Out of angry desperation, she slams her right fist over the field. It reflects the force back at her amplified 10-fold as a flash of light pushed her entire body back forcefully, knocking her to the ground.

"Amy!" Lucy called out from her trapped location. But she can already see Amy pull herself up.

Amy rises, and Lucy can see the tears in her eyes and the quiver in her lips. It ripped at Lucy's heart to see Amy in such despair, but there's nothing she can do from here.

Lucy can only look on as Amy approaches the field again.

"Amy, listen to me very closely." Lucy says sternly. "Run away now. You don't have much time."

Amy could only shake her head in sorrowful defiance. She gets close to the field, drops to the ground and kneels there in anguish at her failure.

"Amy! Listen to me!" Lucy calls out as tears fill her eyes, and she let her body fall until she is also kneeling on the floor in front of Amy. "Get out of here, PLEASE! I don't want them to capture you too."

The girl stayed in her position, staring dejectedly at Lucy. She tries to speak but no words could come out.

"We'll find another way. We will. ...I love you so much." Lucy then raises her open right hand and presses it onto the field, causing the appearance of light scatter on the transparent surface.

Amy followed suit with her left hand. She blinks away some of the tears and manages to speak through the overwhelming emotions. "...I love you too."

They both look at their almost-touching palms. The field was less than a millimeter thick but was enough to block their touch.

"You will see me again. I know it." Lucy says with an assured smile.

Amy could only nod, as she was too broken to do much more.

The electronic buzzing of the archway emitter dwindles, the lights blink off, and through a sudden dispersal of light, and Amy and Lucy suddenly feel the warm contact of their hands against each other.

Both girls blink in sudden confusion, and then each quickly raises their other hands as they instantly clutch onto each other with them. They get up instantly, and without wasting a single moment, Lucy jumps forward at the same time Amy is eagerly pulling Lucy out and away from the arch.

They ran. They ran as hard as they could, tears of sorrow quickly replaced by tears of pure elation. Their hearts were pumping at full force at a thousand beats per minute. They don't know what happened, but at this point there was no desire to question their sudden good fortune. I was like a dream, and they clutch onto each other's hand firmly as they ran, as though reaffirming to each other that this was real.

They ran far into the dark unpaved street by a forested area. Amy reached to her ear and pressed a button on the transmitter.

"Scud! Exit! Now!" Amy bellowed loudly to make sure the microphone picked up the message.

After a second, they hear the sound of a roaring motor as Scud's van barrels out from its hiding spot beneath a dense pack of trees and onto the street. It swerves to face away from the direction of the building as the side door electronically slides open. The van stops just a few meters in front of the pair. The girls quickly jump into the van and immediately shut the door.

"Amy! Lucy! Holy shit! Am I glad to see you two!" Scud gushes from behind the steering wheel.

"You too Scud, now floor it!" Lucy always knows when to get to the point.

"My pleasure!" Scud replies gleefully as he stomps on the pedal and the van peels forward at full thrust.

Amy and Lucy each give a long relieved sigh, both wiping the remaining tears from their faces. They then sit quietly in the bench seat, their hands still locked together. Both of them are silent, but their hearts are still racing. They turn to face each other, and they smile in long awaited relief. Lucy leans in for a kiss, but just as Amy was ready to receive it, she is interrupted by a buzz sound coming from the transmitter in her ear.

"Amy." The voice was slightly distorted by some minor radio interference, but Max's voice was unmistakable.

"...Max?" Amy replies with some apprehension.

"...Don't ever say I never gave you nothin'."

Amy closes her eyes and smiles. The reason for their miraculous escape from the final obstacle now fully explained.

"I won't, Max. Thank you."

"You wanna thank somebody, thank Janet. She can be very persuasive."

"I won't forget this."

"You better not. I hope you know what you're doing, Amy. I hope this really is what you want."

"It is."

"Just promise me..."

"Yes?"

"Both of you. ...Be good."

"I promise."

"Goodbye Amy."

"...Goodbye ...Max."

There was a flicker of static from the transmitter when Max reached in and pressed a button, and then it became silent. She then unhooked it from her ear and flung it across the control panel in front of her with little regard as to where it landed. She watched the monitor in front of her showing clouds of dust kicked up from the van's tires dissipate off to the distance on the public road by the entrance.

Max reaches for the keyboard, types in a few keystrokes, and the screen blinks off to a field of black nothingness.

She can hear the door into the control room open. She turns and sees Janet coming in, her timid posture a far cry from her recent rather-uncharacteristic brashness.

"You... you did the right thing." Janet says, almost whispering, as she steps over an unconscious technician sprawled on the floor of the control room.

"I hope so." Max states unenthusiastically.

Janet clears her throat tentatively. "Are... are we... okay?"

Max's face turns serious in a hurry. "Point your gun at me ever again and I will make sure you regret it."

Janet's face darkens. "...Fair enough."

Then Max relaxes her countenance again. "But I am proud of you."

Janet's eyes perk up. "...Really?"

"You were doing what you thought was right, and you stood by it, fully aware of the risks." Max fixes her gaze right at Janet. "Honestly, I didn't think you had it in you. If I'm still allowed to after all this, I'll be giving full recommendations so that you can finally get your stripes."

Before Max could say anything more, Janet has already jumped towards her and clutched around her body in a gleeful swaying hug.

Max returns the hug and briefly allows Janet to bounce her around a bit before finally calling out, "Okay, okay! Alright, that's enough!"

To Max's dismay, Janet held on for a few more moments before finally letting go. The big bright smile seems to be permanently plastered to her face. Both sense motion near them, and so they each turn to look at the entrance.

They see Dominique leaning by the doorway, looking perfectly unimpressed with her arms crossed. She shakes her head in feigned exasperation and says, "Not you two as well!"

"-----------

* * *

- to be continued - 


	14. Chapter 14

- Aftermath -

- Evil Lair, Master quarters -

* * *

The long dark hair drapes gracefully down her sleeping form. Her breathing is slow, rhythmic, and soothing. She lies belly down, spread gracefully across the length of the bed, extending all the way to the slender wrists recently freed from the steel shackles, to those succulent fingertips sprawled next to her closed eyes. 

Lucy has a slight scent of citrus and lavender in her hair from recently using Amy's shampoo. Amy reaches over and brushes away a stray bundle of hair from her eyes. The intense light from the mid-day sun peeks through the corners of the window blinds. They should probably get up, but Amy is in no rush. As soon as she woke, she stayed awake but unmoving, just to be able to watch Lucy in well-deserved slumber.

Soon, Lucy's body shifts slightly and her eyes tentatively blink open. The first image to greet Lucy's view is Amy's smiling face, and so she smiles back, not holding back the sense of contentment and peace she feels now, to know this would be the first of innumerable times she will wake up by the dazzling blonde's side.

"Good morning." Amy whispers, as she closes her hand over Lucy's, entwining their fingers together.

"Good morning, Princess." Lucy answers, thoroughly enjoying the feel of the hand of the other girl upon her own.

Amy begins to stroke the dark knuckles with her thumb. "Sleep well?"

"A few hundred times better than on that military-grade mattress, that's for sure."

Both girls giggle at each other for a while, before Amy's face turns slightly more serious.

"So... gotten over the shock yet?" Amy asks while trying not to turn the mood too somber.

Lucy still retains a small smile as she answers, "...About what you told me last night?"

Amy nods, trying to hide the apprehension on her face.

"Well... I can't say I wasn't more than a bit surprised at first..." Lucy answers with a shrug. "But if I was put through that situation, who knows what I'd be capable of? I don't blame you for anything."

Amy looks on without speaking, and Lucy felt like she needed to say more.

"So much for the crime-fighting goody-two-shoes I met before, huh?" Lucy chuckles as she says this, but quickly stops as she sees Amy's expression becoming more downcast.

Lucy quickly reaches over and holds Amy's cheek, making her eyes return to look at Lucy's. "What is it, baby?" Lucy's voice was exuding with concern.

It takes a couple of feeble attempts for Amy to respond, but she finally forced her mouth to speak. "That's just it... Are you disappointed that I'm no longer the girl you pursued all those months ago? ...Have I changed too much?"

Lucy immediately smiles. With her hand on Amy's cheek, she begins to gently caress the smooth soft skin.

"Silly girl." Lucy says with her eyes gleaming. "I don't care what happened the last few months, you're still the same person as you ever were." She then leans in close, their faces only inches apart. "...But even if you did change, I would still find a way to love you anyway."

Lucy's words earn her a bright and exuberant smile back from the former crime-fighter. Amy leans in, and closes the small gap in between their lips, and gives her a warm, appreciative kiss.

Soon, their lips separate, and Amy can see from the concern in Lucy's eyes that she has something on her mind.

"What do you plan to do now?" Lucy asks in a reserved tone. "...Continue being a criminal? ...Or stay in hiding until they get tired of hunting for you?"

Amy responds casually, "What would you want me to do?"

"You can be whatever you want. I'll be here with you always." Then, a knowing smile forms on Lucy's lips. "...But I also know you don't really want that kind of life. All that money you stole, I doubt you enjoyed doing it for a second."

Amy pauses, her mind flashing back to all the con-jobs, the carefully calculated heists. She closes her eyes momentarily and shakes her head. "...No. I hated it. But I kept doing it. ...I think part of my mind hoped by doing this, I can somehow get closer to you, to experience the life you had."

Lucy gives her a smile, and continues to stroke her cheek. But a part of her deep down is saddened by what Amy went through for her. She feels guilty for it, even though she had no control over the entire situation. But now, she promises to herself, she'll be the one to make things right for this precious girl, whatever it takes.

Suddenly, a mischievous grin appears on Amy's expression. She reaches up and holds onto Lucy's hand, then proceeds to get up from the bed, taking the brunette with her.

"Come here. I'll show you something."

Lucy follows, showing a smile like Amy's, curious as to what other surprises she has up her sleeve.

Amy leads her towards the desk in the middle of the room. As they walk, she says in a fond voice, "Just so you know, I didn't go _completely _bonkers. I did have a method to my madness."

Amy reaches the desk, and then proceeds to type a few commands into the built-in keyboard. Quickly, the blank space above the desk flashes to several dazzling color displays, showing various official documents and records.

Lucy gazes at the documents one by one in a dizzying slideshow, but she recognizes enough to be able to register the significance. Her expression is a mix of disbelief and surprise.

"Isn't that...?"

Amy just nods as she gazes over the display, beaming with personal pride.

"Which means...?"

Amy nods again. "It means we have them by the balls. And I plan to squeeze until it hurts."

* * *

- Success - 

This day was beginning to wear Ms. Petrie down. It's been 5 days since the Facility escape, and yet, she is still getting the same calls and e-mails. She keeps hearing the same complaints, the incessant whining from all levels of Government, all about the job her supposedly best agents weren't able to accomplish. She was able to keep her composure for the most part, except for the time when a high-level administrator from Homeland Security had the gall to insinuate that her agents let the prisoner go out of sympathy. She tore several strips off the man for nearly a half hour, until he finally blubbered to an apology for the comment.

As the DEBS matriarch sat in her office, dreading another ring of the phone, or a beep indicating another e-mail, she gazes attentively at the clock, wondering if she should just go home early to avoid another imminent outcry. Just then, a ring sounded nearby, and just as she was about to grumble angrily, she realized from the ring-tone it was just her assistant. She reached over and pressed a button.

"Ms. Petrie, there's something on CNN that will probably interest you." The assistant spoke urgently.

"Bring it up." She replied flatly.

A metal beam on the corner of her desk sprang alive with a 2-dimensional holographic display, showing a well-dressed anchorwoman behind a desk.

"_...The White House Chief of Staff, Bill Page, was taken into custody without incident today at approximately 11:30am as Federal Agents arrived at his home with an arrest warrant. This morning's events follow the shocking leak of top-secret files showing that Chief Page, along with several other politicians from various countries around the world, had been collaborating to protect certain international crime rings from arrest and prosecution, in exchange for enormous bribes that were hidden in offshore accounts. Other countries have followed suit, each taking into custody their respective officials that were named as collaborators in the leaked files. In addition, approximately 100 million dollars were recovered from the hidden bank accounts by an unknown party and collected into a Trust Account that will begin to distribute the funds to various charitable relief agencies. Chief Page's lawyer had no immediate comment on the allegations..."_

It was a good thing no one else was in the office, as Ms. Petrie wouldn't want anyone else to notice the satisfied grin that has suddenly appeared on her face.

* * *

- to be continued -

* * *

_A.N.: Short update this time! Sorry!_  



	15. Chapter 15

- 3 months later -

* * *

It was close to dusk here at Costa Dorada beach. A slight chill is settling in for the night, and only but a few brave souls wrapped in large towels dared to remain on the sand, gazing out to the vast darkening expanse of the Mediterranean Sea.

On a small paved walkway just farther inland, a lone young woman walks steadily. A local might just regard her as another of the many tourists that come by the area, and one might even stop to ask if she needed directions. But Max knew exactly where she was going, having memorized every street within 10 blocks of the meeting point. Not that she suspected she was in any extra danger today. She did it mostly from habit.

The athletic dark-haired agent continues to stroll until she reaches behind a bench, where a tall blonde was sitting. In this blonde's hands were a pencil and a sketchbook. As Max approaches behind the woman, she takes a peek at the drawing, and sees a near-perfect pencil silhouette of the wooden pier straight ahead of her.

"You've gotten even better." Max starts, knowing full well Amy knew she was right behind her.

"Thanks." Amy replies, keeping her gaze ahead of her, studying her unmoving subject. "I still have some trouble with water surfaces, but I'm working on it.

Max smiles. "You're broadening your horizons. I remember you used to always draw people."

Amy lets out a small laugh, with more than a small hint of embarrassment. "Blame that on my teachers. They say I need to submit more than just pictures of my girlfriend all the time."

* * *

The two women slowly tread down the path alongside the beach. Amy had collected her sketchbook and supplies in a large, flat case she slung around her shoulder. A case Max later finds out she now almost never goes without.

"...So are you going to tell me what happened after? How you both got here, and even using legitimate passports?" Max asked, as though she had been eager for the answer for a while.

After a short pause, Amy finally answers. "The media never found out who released those files exposing Bill Page. But I made sure that certain people of high influence knew it was me, and made sure they knew that I had more than just what was released."

Max appeared concerned. "That might have been foolish. You of all people know that for them, all it takes is one phone call and you'd have half a dozen top assassins hunting you down."

"I know. But I also know they had too much at stake to risk it. All it took would have been one failed hit and everything would be out. What I had on them could destroy everything they value in their lives. There would have been a huge public outcry like you've never seen. It would easily bring down the entire Administration, and pretty much turn the US political arena into utter chaos. They were eager to negotiate considering that my asking price is relatively low..."

"Lucy's freedom." Max finished for her.

"Yes. And mine. ...And Bobby's too."

Max's eyes perked up at Amy's at that moment, more than a bit of surprise in her expression.

"After they found Bobby on the grounds, they took him to the hospital. Once he recovered, he was charged with everything they could think of, from Unauthorized Government Computer Access to Trespassing of Military Grounds to Conspiracy, Treason, and Terrorism. Even his dad wasn't able to convince them to lower the charges. Considering the counter-terrorism laws in place now, his life would have effectively ended. Despite what he did at Endgame, I wouldn't have Lucy now if it weren't for him. So I couldn't let that happen to him. He can now rebuild his life, but he will never be allowed to hold another Government position again."

Max thought for a moment. Never would she have thought this meek little ex-agent-in-training could have been capable of bringing the US government to its knees. There was just one more question on this subject.

"So why did you target Bill Page and the rest in the bribery scheme? Sounds like you brought down the small fry while keeping the big fish in power."

"I left them in, because I know even if they go down, there'll be more of the same kind elected to replace them. Greed isn't limited to one President, or one Party. There's a shit-load of bad money in the political pool, the only difference is who happens to be swimming in it." Amy's face then clenches a bit in disgust. "But Bill Page was no small fry, Max. He was the leader in a truly despicable network that took in profits from people engaged in everything from child prostitution, to weapons sales to extremist groups, to counterfeiting of insulin and cancer drugs ...the list of vile things his group did is enormous. Most politicians usually just meddle with stock prices, take corporate bribes in exchange for favors, or hide tax money. I took out who I thought was the greater of two evils. And it just so happened the lesser of the two had the power to do what I asked them to."

After she let it settle in a bit, Max's eyes bulged open. "Wait... did you just say you blackmailed the President of the United States?"

Amy smiled, almost smirking. "There are not many people in the world who can just, unofficially of course, tell the FBI to cross a few names off their most-wanted list, Max."

Max continued to gaze at Amy, her expression one of shock and admiration.

Amy walked on with an indecipherable expression. While she did harbor some pride in what she was able to pull off, she was mainly just happy it was over and done with.

"What I wasn't able to interfere with was the possible consequences for you and the team." Amy added in a regretful tone. "But I'm glad it seemed like you were able to come out of it pretty much unscathed."

Max thought for a moment and recounts, "For several days, we were half-expecting to be criminally charged. To our relief, we weren't. To our complete surprise, we weren't even reprimanded by the Agency for the complete failure in the mission. ...Maybe we got lucky, lack of evidence perhaps."

"It wasn't luck." Amy replied with certainty in her voice. "I doubt it was a coincidence you were the ones they sent in that night."

Max looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I have no proof, and she will never admit it, but I believe Ms. Petrie knew Lucy was there."

Max's jaw dropped. "How?"

"I don't know. Maybe she was one of the select few who knew in the first place. Maybe she found out by accident. But if I'm right, that means her goal all this time was to either to find a way for me to stop myself from stealing, which will satisfy her job mandate, or try to get me to release the files I obtained in order to reveal the corruption, or probably both. Either of which she knew I would likely do if I knew Lucy was alive and was back with me."

Max still looked a bit confused, so Amy continued. "Anybody as high up as Ms. Petrie in the intelligence community, with still a shred of conscience in them, would wish for the files I had on Bill Page to be revealed. But of course they would never do it themselves out of concern for their jobs or their personal safety."

"So how does that relate to our assignment?"

"Homeland Security quietly asked for security reinforcement after suspecting of the unauthorized access on their own computers. Ms. Petrie immediately volunteered your team for the job, despite the fact it was completely unrelated to your skills and training." Amy then smiled gently. "...But I believe that since she knew Lucy was there, she knew it was likely going to be me going after her. So she sent you in, because my friends are much more likely to let me take Lucy back."

A shot of guilt passes through Max at that point, knowing that amongst the three of them, she was the one who tried the hardest to stop her.

Amy notices the change to a somber expression on her former squad leader, and immediately tries to reassure her. "It's okay Max. Really. I can understand why you were angry with me. I had more than a few less-than-stellar moments over that whole timeframe as well." She sighs, and then continues in a regretful tone, "It's difficult to believe how differently you view the world when the one thing you treasure most is taken away."

Max's footsteps begin to slow until she is just standing still. Her mind is swarming in a dizzying haze of images from the past she tried to forget and refused to reveal for so long. She closes her eyes, and her face angles down in contemplation.

Amy then halts her own feet, and turns curiously to look at her friend.

After a moment passes, Max turns her eyes back up, her face and voice solemn and serious. "...I can believe it."

Amy continues to just gaze at her former squad leader; her curiosity now peaked.

Max takes a moment to collect herself, then starts, "...Long before the school, even before the SAT exam, I was with the guy I thought I'd be with for the rest of my life." Max says in a soft tone. "In fact, at the time I was certain we'd be married before I finish college."

Amy stood with her mouth slightly open, but trying not to look too shocked. Even as best friends through the Agency, Max had never mentioned of anybody that she was serious with, ever.

"His name was Brendan." Max continues. "He was the top shooting guard at our high school, and was considered one of the top basketball prospects in the country. One evening, three days before the regional championship game, he was walking me home, and these boys wearing masks jumped out and attacked us. We fought back hard, much harder than they expected, and so they panicked. One of them hit Brendan in the head with a baseball bat, and then he just stopped moving.

Amy gasped quietly, and a look of sympathy appeared on her face.

"But they didn't get away with it. The Police found the baseball bat in some trash bin, and compared it with the DNA from skin and blood samples from the attack scene. It took almost two months before they were identified.

They were all players from the team that had just won the championship against our team, a prize they won because Brendan couldn't play against them.

They were arrested, charged, and convicted. And after Brendan's parents had to pull the plug on his respirator, the charges were upgraded to murder and accessories to, and so their sentences lengthened drastically. Four of them are still in prison now. It was a textbook showcase of a modern society dealing with crime: Scientific. Efficient. Ethical. ...And agonizingly unsatisfying.

So when the opportunity eventually came for me to be the one to go after those who choose to commit crime, I embraced it. I reveled in it. And what I went through has shaped how I go about my work. ...I hunt them down like animals. And this is why, as you put it, I loved the chase. But that night, I was reminded of why I did all this, how I put my love for someone above all else, and how everything wouldn't mean a damn thing if I was offered the opportunity to be with him again. And so that's when I knew; it was exactly what you were going through right then."

Amy steps ahead and wraps her arms around the muscular girl. At first, Max didn't respond, but after a moment, she finally let herself relax and leaned her head onto the taller girl's shoulder, and let out an enormous relaxing sigh.

Amy later let go of her embrace, and they resumed their walk on the concrete walkway in silence. After some thought, Amy smiled and said amusedly, "I guess we're not that different, are we?"

Max smirked. "Not really, I guess. Except you know, I don't like... cats."

A deep rose-colored hue invaded on Amy's cheeks. "Well... cats... can be quite ...enjoyable, as I have discovered."

Max chucked and rolled her eyes. "Spare me the details, please. I'll take your word for it."

Both erupted into a prolonged giggle fit. After that tapered off, Max said smiling, "But nonetheless, I'm really glad we're still friends." Then the face of the dark-haired girl turned slightly apologetic. "...We are still, right?"

Amy turned towards her friend gleefully. "What did I tell you the first time we met?"

Max gave a quick thought and remembered. "That oatmeal scrubs do wonders for your skin?"

Amy paused. "Before that."

Max smiles with surprising bashfulness. "That we'd always be friends."

Amy's smile returns. "I am certain of that much more now than ever before."

Their arms encircle each other over the shoulders, and they stumble along in their stride playfully as they finish the remainder of the paved beach trail.

The two women reach to an intersection farther inland, across from a small dessert place, and after the road clears, they begin to approach the establishment.

"Janet and Dominique are inside." Max explains. Amy seems a bit amused by that.

"Was that your idea or theirs?" Amy asks.

"Theirs." Max answers. "They said they wanted to make sure we're not going to start a gunfight before they join us."

Amy giggled. "Ah, safe precaution." She then gives Max a wink.

As soon as they notice Max and Amy approaching, and in apparently good mood, Janet and Dominique both rushes outside to join them, each crushing Amy into delighted hugs.

During the contact, Amy immediately notices a piece of rubbery plastic on Dominique's neck. She stares at it as she pulls back, which Dominique notices.

"Nicotine patch." Dominique says proudly, pointing at the little square. "No more cigarettes pour moi!"

Amy's eyes brighten as her face shows a joyous smile. She practically squeals as she re-wraps Dominique back into a firm hug. "I'm so proud of you!"

They eventually pull away, and Amy turns to Janet, noticing the new wardrobe. She cocks an eyebrow. "What's this, no sweater today, Janet?"

Janet straightens her back and twirls a bit, showing off the chic, sleek, elegant attire she has on. "This is Europe, Amy! I gotta do the whole Couture thing, ya know?" Then she leans with a wink. "Plus, I have to take advantage when Scud's feeling generous with his Visa!"

Amy laughs. "Looks great on you, Janet." Amy's bit of fashion praise causing Janet to bounce in her spot giddily.

Max slaps her palms together excitedly. "Okay, who's up for some local cuisine? Amy? What's good within walking distance?"

Spotting something she knew all too well in the corner of her eyes, fast approaching their direction, Amy smiles mischievously.

"Well, who says we have to walk?"

Just then, a shiny light-blue Bentley Continental GT convertible, with the top down, rolls in and halts to a stop next to them. The dark-haired female driver turns to give an alluring look at the girls, especially to the taller blonde, while tipping her sunglasses up to her forehead.

"Can I interest any of you pretty girls for a ride?" Lucy asks seductively. Amy's heart fluttered at the so-sexy voice, then walks over to the former Pirate-wannabe, and leans in for a soft, lingering kiss.

The squad members look at each other briefly, and then each nodded to each other. They all begin to pile into the car. Amy took the passenger seat after placing her case in the trunk. The backseats aren't exactly roomy but the three slim girls seem to be comfortable enough snuggling together. Max eyed the two front occupants, and the car, with overwhelming suspicion.

"Amy, I thought you returned all the money you stole."

As she buckles her seatbelt, she says matter-of-factly, "I kept what I thought was a fair recovery fee." Then she turns to the driver with a sly smile, "But it was nothing compared to the combined accounts Lucy had hidden away a long time ago."

Lucy grins as the car begins to roll, her right index finger wagging in the air to make a point. "_Legitimate_ accounts, by the way, inherited from my parents. It was hidden so that I can use it when I decide to retire."

"Uh-huh." Max replied. Not really sure if she believes that, but surprisingly, it didn't really matter in her mind at this point.

As the group cruised through the streets, likely headed for some exotic restaurant that corresponded with Lucy's expensive tastes, Lucy acts the role of the designated tour guide for the newcomers. Amy relaxes; her mind begins to wonder as she considers her life as it stands now. She thinks about what might have been and what has now become. She considers what might have happened had Bobby not pulled that trigger that fateful night, and as well, how grim her world would have been had she allowed herself to be consumed by her torment.

She realizes that no matter what happens around you, that as long as you keep that core of yourself that keeps you being you, nothing in the world can possibly change.

Amy breaks out of her reverie as she feels the warm fingers of her dark-haired angel slipping in between hers, intertwining into a gentle, but seemingly unbreakable hold.

Yes, Amy smiles contently as she says silently to herself, the world is finally as it should be.

- Fin -


End file.
